"Swearing, hysterics and a heroically stoic clerk transform Handforth meeting into absurdist drama" A parish council meeting which descended into chaos – with councillors trading insults and ultimately getting booted off the Zoom call – has become an internet sensation and a metaphor for the UK’s woes under lockdown. A video of the Handforth council meeting in Cheshire showed it starting badly when one unseen councillor apparently muttered swear words under his breath as the clerk tried to bring the session to order. Things did not improve. The meeting quickly degenerated into rancour with councillors in the village near Wilmslow trading insults and ultimately being booted off the Zoom call by the clerk.

The combination of “parish” and “council” are indicative of the forces and sources of power and status that can be exploited and usurped. Human nature’s most basic instincts at play as you have written about so eloquently in East West Street.