The other star of that viral Reform UK “we don’t understand anything” Kirklees Council meeting
We caught up with Tanisha Bramwell, an independent councillor who sits on Kirklees Council. Here's what she had to say about that response.
“We understand that because we don’t understand it …”
And with those words, along with other soundbites – ”I don't understand the constitution … I don't understand what standing orders … nor do I understand what an amendment is …” – Sarah Wood, the leader of Reform UK on Kirkless Council, has found herself becoming something of a viral sensation. But for all the wrong reasons.
Though there is something to be said of humility – of which there is little evidence of in politics generally and in abundant supply during the Kirkless Council meeting – the admissions from Wood revealed serious shortcomings in the newly elected Reform UK councillors. They hadn’t done their homework. They didn’t know what was going on. And, in response, they were quick to repurpose their ignorance as something untoward, something undemocratic.
The independent councillor Tanisha Bramwell didn’t like this. “When you are elected, you have to prioritise educating yourself on how to be the best councillor and representative for your area,” she said during the chaotic meeting, which resulted in no leader of the council being elected. “That's on you to call that. I'm sorry but to call that unconstitutional is absolutely incorrect – and it's not right.”
Bramwell, too, has also gone viral. But, in contrast to Wood, not in a cringe, David Brent-esque way. Her swift, eloquent and down-to-earth every man and every woman response to Wood has also caught people’s attention.
We wanted to hear what she had to say – and, to our surprise, found ourselves chatting briefly to Bramwell, whose social media platforms describe her, in different ways, as a charity founder, activist and councillor, on a very Sunny bank holiday Friday afternoon. Here’s what she had to say.
Your quick rebuttal to Wood’s now viral comments are also doing the rounds online. What’s your take on all of this?
A lot of people haven't actually watched the entirety of the video – and you know the video that's gone viral? That’s ours. We wanted to make sure that people got the kind of the gist of the meeting without watching it in full.
But what people didn't see on that little viral clip is that when councilor Wood stood up and went on to tell us repeatedly that we don't understand what we're voting for, we've not read the standing order, we don't know the process, what she said at the end of that comment – which please go and watch on YouTube – she says we believe because we don't know this is unconstitutional, we are going to make sure all residents know what's happened here today.
And I became so frustrated sat there thinking to myself that I've been a councillor now for only 18 months, but I've had a platform for a while – and when you have a platform, you have to handle it yourself very carefully, don't rush to react and and sit back and have a thought process about things.
And I was so appalled at the language used, because what she was basically saying to me, in my opinion, how I took it was, we are going to form an opinion based on lies, because it was because they were uneducated, and we're going to basically show this opinion as a fact, and we're going to put out there to the Kirklees residents knowing full well that politics right now is completely dividing communities like ours, especially a ward like mine, which is very high in diversity – something that I'm very proud of and we're very proud of as a community – and to have that language and be categorised into something as being – for me personally – as unconstitutional, that put out in the wrong headline on the wrong account could very easily push people to say that we're being corrupt inside that council chamber...
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