Sarah Wood is the leader of the Reform Party group on Kirklees Council. As such, she ran to lead the council, of which her party holds a plurality, but no majority. Here is Cllr. Wood, demonstrating her grasp of the council that she feels equipped to lead:
The Victory Lap of Not Knowing Anything
The Kirklees fiasco summed up a trend that’s been creeping into public life for years: people turning up to serious jobs and treating their lack of understanding like it’s a badge of honour.
There’s no embarrassment nor humility.
It’s celebration.
Watching elected officials boast about not knowing the rules, not reading the documents, not understanding the votes, and then acting like the real problem is everyone else… it’s exhausting.
It’s like watching someone refuse to learn how a seatbelt works and then demanding applause for “keeping it real”.
There’s nothing wrong with being new.
There’s nothing wrong with learning.
But there’s something deeply wrong with treating ignorance as authenticity, as if competence is suspicious and preparation is elitist.
That’s what grates.
The swagger.
The pride.
The way some people treat not knowing anything as proof they’re on the side of “ordinary folk”, when all it really proves is that they didn’t bother to do the homework.
And the rest of us are left sitting in the fallout while they grin for the cameras.
It’s one thing to make mistakes.
It’s another to walk into a council chamber, admit you don’t understand the basics, and then act like the system is at fault for expecting you to know what you’re doing.
Ignorance isn’t a personality.
It’s not a political identity.
It’s not a virtue.
And the more it gets celebrated, the more we all end up living in the mess created by people who think reading the manual is optional.