Aled Brewerton — one of the participants in the now viral video call — has a legal background, report claims
We’re living in strange times. An example of just how strange can perhaps be seen in the latest viral video to sweep social media.
We are, of course, referring to that now infamous meeting of Handforth Parish Council’s planning committee.
The footage, which recently surfaced on YouTube and subsequently made its way onto Twitter, shows an edited highlights package of a rather chaotic committee meeting from 10 December.
The meeting, conducted via Zoom in light of the pandemic, kicks off (quite literally) with an unseen councillor muttering “f*** off’ under the breath. This is quickly followed by the committee’s chair, Brian Tolver, questioning the legitimacy of the proceedings before telling a fellow participant, Jackie Weaver to “stop talking” and “you have no authority here”.
Refusing to back down, Weaver takes swift action and removes Tolver from the call, placing him in a virtual waiting room to cool down.
The disruption, however, doesn’t end there. As Weaver attempts to appoint a new chair, she is interrupted once again, this time by the vice-chair, Aled Brewerton. “No they can’t because the vice-chair is here! I take charge!” he says firmly. “Read the standing orders. Read them and understand them!”
The amusing row, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, reportedly came just weeks after another chaotic meeting which saw Tolver ejected from the call.
But it’s now been reported that one of the video’s unwitting stars, Aled — ‘read the standing orders!’ — Brewerton, is a qualified lawyer. The Mail Online, which has looked into what each member of the committee does outside their parish work, describes Brewerton as “a self-employed solicitor”.
Moreover, a LinkedIn profile purporting to belong to a Mr Aled Brewerton from Handforth shows he studied law at the University of Manchester and spent almost a year in the commercial disputes department of national law firm TLT. He later joined Manchester Central Methodists as a “trustee/solicitor” and now works as professional investigator.
Legal Cheek has approached Brewerton for comment.
