Does Jackie Weaver have any authority? Just ask Alexa
Amazon’s voice-powered digital assistant Alexa is now able to answer the burning question on everyone’s lips: Does Jackie Weaver have any authority?
A video of Ms Weaver handling a chaotic parish council meeting went viral last week, in which participants were seen losing their cool and trading insults.
Ms Weaver, of Prees in Shropshire, became an overnight internet sensation after she kicked Handforth Parish Council chairman Brian Tolver off the Zoom call.
Tech giant Amazon is getting in on the humour, allowing users to ask Alexa “Who is Jackie Weaver?” and “Does Jackie Weaver have any authority?”.
In response to the first question, Alexa says, “Do you mean Britney Spears?”, a nod to confusion about names and titles during the virtual meeting, where Ms Weaver joked, “please refer to me as Britney Spears from now on”.
The second question also references one of the standout moments from the call, with Alexa replying: “As long as there is reasonable behaviour, she has authority here.”
A clip of the December 10 meeting, which was put on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, had been viewed 5.5 million times as of Monday morning.
Ms Weaver spoke to the Shropshire Star of her new-found fame, which saw Zoom clips of the parish council meeting go viral and feature on media reports across the world.
It has also led to a number of spoofs, including a sketch featuring Gary Lineker that featured at the start of Football Focus on Saturday.
She said she welcomed the publicity that was being given to local democracy in action.
