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| Jackie Weaver (Image: This is Money) |
It's been another year where we've seen more drama in real life than a standard Christmas episode of a soap opera. Rules brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic changed every five minutes, and even as I write this, what we can and can't do continues to be high on the political agenda thanks to new variants; we don't know whether we're coming or going. While I stick to my guns on why the pandemic is still dominating our livelihoods, we cannot underestimate how well we've done to adapt since March 2020, and we'll continue to do so over the coming months.
I share the frustration that the British government's direction may not match what we think is going on. We're all keen to get on with our lives and actually treat Covid like the seasonal flu, as Health Secretary Sajid Javid had once promised - of course, we've never locked down because of flu before. I know we will one day and I'll look forward to that moment, but I appreciate the UK government doesn't want to mess up on this like it did at the start of the pandemic.
But I want to talk more about how we've adapted, which the quirky side of this is the theme around my 'Person of the Year'. My choice is rather poignantly light-hearted and in choosing this person, I wouldn't want to be seen as ignoring those who've contributed to helping ease the threat of Covid-19. Those on the front line of our health service deserve all the recognition in trying to do their day jobs - whether it be in mental or physical health, or A&E - and volunteering their time to the vaccination programme. These volunteers also include those from completely different sectors who were furloughed during much of the past 20 months, and spent their time helping others.
I could have also handed my 'Person of the Year' to Emma Raducanu, the UK-raised Chinese/Romanian tennis superstar who won the US Open in September, and in doing so captured our hearts with her charm, personality and style. The 19-year-old deservedly won 2021's BBC Sports Personality of the Year. I could've also considered entrepreneur Elon Musk for influencing the progress of various cryptocurrencies as well as travelling up to space for a few minutes. He won TIME Magazine's coveted 'Person of the Year' prize so I'd rather not inflate his ego by giving him the all-important double.
I've chosen someone who had done something in December 2020 but didn't 'go viral' until two months later. And this person has since become a public figure - an icon, if you will - and if we don't see her on Strictly Come Dancing or I'm a Celebrity next year, we'll have done her a disservice. Yes, I'm talking about Jackie Weaver.
Weaver was clerk of a Handforth Parish Council meeting and hosted this on Zoom which was then shared on YouTube. Like most other 'official' meetings, if anyone missed them, they'd be made accessible on a platform as visual proof of them having taken place. They're almost a way for us to get rid of 'minutes'. Anyway, the reason the video didn't go viral initially was most probably because nobody would want to sit and watch talking heads discuss plans to close a village road, for instance. But the teenagers who discovered this video obviously watched enough of the footage to be in awe of the most explosive exchange you'll find on the internet about the most mundane subject. For that, we thank them.
All we'll remember of the video is that the council chairman at the time proclaimed to Weaver that she had "no authority, no authority at all". As the 'host' of the Zoom meeting, and thus having the power to remove whoever she wanted to, Weaver removed him from the meeting, much to the shock and horror of some of the other participants. She was taking no prisoners and excluded people who were disrupting the meeting. For someone who had 'Zoom fatigue' after, probably, day six of the first lockdown, I was impressed to find that a dry online encounter can bring such joyous entertainment.
When the video went viral, Weaver's profile shot up. She appeared in everything - an accidental celebrity, if you will. And she fully embraced it from day one. She's helped kick off the BRIT Awards, released a single and published a book - and has taken it all in her stride. Often, we see people try so hard to be famous and these plans usually fall flat because there aren't gaps in the market to accommodate the same type of household name. There are too many TikTok stars releasing the same types of film, for example. With Weaver, it's different. She may have been an online sensation, but an unlikely one nonetheless.
And Weaver's entrance to our lives came at just the right time. Even when we saw a glimmer of hope with the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine, we were still stuck at home and in need of a boost. I felt we needed some light when there was so much bleakness - a distraction away from the pandemic. Whoever was going to do that, and do it with such unpredictable style, had to win my coveted prize anyway. And as Weaver is still having fun with her newfound fame, I say long may her status continue.
JSPrice Perception 'Person of the Year' - previous winners:
- 2020: recurrent TV programmes
- 2019: Colleen Rooney and Dominic Grieve
- 2018: Declan Donnelly
- 2017: Meghan Markle
- 2016: Selection including Tim Peake
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