Local councillors have been lambasted on social media this week after a series of utterly baffling questions emerged from council meetings, all apparently authored by artificial intelligence and barely glanced at before being read out in full.
It was meant to be a bit of digital wizardry to save time between tea breaks and grumbling about dog fouling, but instead the social mediaati have had a field day. Clips of councillors unwittingly reading out questions about “quantum porridge regulation” and “mandatory moonlight savings time for squirrels” have gone viral, with viewers wondering whether the council chamber has been replaced by the writer’s room of a particularly confused sci‑fi sitcom.
But the true pièce de résistance is the AI‑generated poster campaign by Cllr Jordan Tarrant‑Short. What was intended as a jaunty set of promotional images has, according to online commentators, aged him by approximately 40 years and dressed him in such a way that he resembles “Cllr Neil Emmott’s love child on a budget period drama.” Screenshots of the posters are being shared with affectionate cruelty, with one particularly biting caption labelling him “the ghost of bureaucracy yet to come.”
Sources within the municipal offices, who asked not to be named for fear of being drafted into the next AI roll‑out, say Tarrant‑Short encountered the prompt “Make me look distinguished yet approachable” and somehow the algorithm took this as “visualise The Queen’s Corgi’s accountant in his twilight years.” The result, critics say, is an image more befitting a mannish sage from a leather‑bound novel than the sprightly councillor known for his annual pumpkin pie fundraiser.
“I just thought it would appeal to the older demographic,” Tarrant‑Short told a bemused local reporter, while simultaneously trying to delete the offending files and failing because “the AI has taken over the USB slot now.” He insists he still believes in the technology, even though one generated question he submitted at last night’s meeting asked, “What is the council’s stance on time‑travel zoning permits?”
Social media users have not been subtle. One tweet simply read: “If this is the future of local governance, I’m out. Also, who dressed Cllr Tarrant‑Short in the council leader’s shirt, which, bizarrely, actually looked ironed for once. Another commenter mused that the posters would “pair nicely with a lifetime supply of prune juice and a subscription to Vintage Tractors Monthly.”
Council leader Cllr Neil Emmott, who is now fielding questions about parentage from the public and, inexplicably, from his own aunt, declined to comment, instead offering a wry thumbs‑up emoji on Instagram.
For now, borough residents are left wondering whether their next meeting will involve sensible debate, or whether some overeager AI will once again take the wheel, possibly dressed in Victorian waistcoat and demanding a raise in the pensioner’s bus pass allowance.
More on this as it ages disgracefully on the internet.
