I quite often have a look through the links and sites of people who have commented on my site, as I have found some very interesting blogs — and people — in this manner before. One of the people who commented on my previous blog entry Nadine Dorries: The Witchhunt was a certain Councillor Jack Brody.

That’s interesting, I thought. Another local government personage who has come across my site, taking me up to a grand total of at least um … two … councillors I know who look at my site, and er… some other local government people. Which, I reckoned, probably makes me about as widely read as Directgov.

Until of course I actually investigated Councillor Brody in a little more detail:

I am Jack Brody, local councillor of no fixed party. I work in the Greater Manchester Rochdale remit area and I am fond of biscuits. I am a people person, as long as they are respectable people, like me. [...] I always have the interests of my constituents at heart. It’s just sometimes their interests and my interests don’t match. I am a man to whom fear has no meaning. I just don’t know what it means. About Councillor Jack Brody

As I was reading this, I was thinking “is it really appropriate for a local councillor to be saying these sort of things? couldn’t he get into trouble for this?”. And “what does he mean, no fixed party?”

Until of course there was a dawning realisation that Councillor Jack Brody was of course a spoof, at which point I started to find the whole thing somewhat reminiscent of DPM’s Diary (Computer Weekly’s take on life at Bogcaster City Council). I would possibly have arrived at this realisation somewhat earlier if I had actually read his posts first, rather than simply his about page…

For example, there’s the post about the Beijing Olympics…

The closing ceremony was absolutely spectacular. It reminded me of Rochdale high street on a Saturday night, only more oriental, and with slightly less fighting.Jack Brody’s Funky Junket

Or there’s the post about policing at the G20…

There has been some hoo-hah and a bit of furore in the press of late about the police continuing to be over-zealous and up to untoward shenanigans. Now, we have to remember that the police do a very difficult job in sometimes dire circumstances, so if they want to beat unarmed protestors about the chops once in a while, who are we to stop them? Every job needs its perks.

I am getting a little fed up of some people saying that we are living in a police state. If I hear another person say that I will have them arrested and throw away the key!

Police Release Me (Let Me Go!)

Of course, to people actually deceived by Councillor Jack Brody — with comments also appearing on the likes of this is london, they might see him as a hoaxer. This however is just a standard reaction to people falling for this sort of thing. It’s simply a spoof (particularly since there is no Rochdale councillor actually called Jack Brody), and an entertaining spoof at that.

So if you want to see life through the eyes of an independent Rochdale councillor, you could do a lot worse than to take a wander over to Councillor Jack Brody’s site and have a read up. Just don’t take it too seriously, is all…