Bercow: an average speaker for an average House

First off, Alex, I have to congratulate you on your frankness. it is hard to imagine DD being so candid. I was put off Bercow immediately because he used within the first few sentences of his acceptance speech that trite sound-bity phrase "Making a difference". I would like that silly expression banned!. be that as it may, a man caught flipping and generally enjoying himself being inventive with his expenses, is, to my mind, no better than Michael martin.

I actually think it would have been a good idea to have installed Ms Widdicombe on what we know would have been a temporary basis, because I think after the next election, so many of those who voted for Bercow yesterday will no longer be in Parliament, so I think it will be necessary to have a fresh vote, and for once - I think the only time - i find myself in agreement with Frank Field.

Martin Salter was on LBC talking up Bercow this morning - Salter came out with the usual crier de cour that Bercow had "acted within the rules" and had "done nothing wrong". Not legally, no, but morally, most certainly yes. I daresay Keith vaz was one of Bercow's supporters - did you see the Saturday supplement to the Telegraph which listed virtually every MP and his/her record?. Vas is terribly "resourceful", and along with people like Malik routinely applied for £200 "petty cash" every month. The Telegraph's un-reducted records are now on line in full.

This story will not go away and I don't think public trust has been restored, nor can it be. The best thing you can say for Bercow is that he is not Beckett!

A speaker has been chosen , a speaker that flipped on his houses, avoided capital gains tax so we now have a tax avoider in high office,it stinks ,the speaker and indeed mps must be squeeky clean, alas that is too much to ask , i despair, and what makes it worse most of labour mps voted him in,when are they going to learn,if this were France the electorate would be out in force, the whole shambles beggers belief....BY THE WAY IF I AVOIDED CAPITAL GAINS THE OLD BILL WOULD BE ON MY DOOR,BUT THERE AGAIN IM ONLY A CITIZEN..

Those who voted for Bercow (you know who you are) definitely put party politics before country.

Bercow is tainted goods. If he represents the voice of parliamentary reform and re-establishing public trust, then we should get Fred the Shred to do the same for the banking industry.

I do hope - for the benefit of us all - that I'm proven wrong and that Bercow proves himself worthy.

If, however, we are all disappointed, the best thing Cameron can do when he becomes PM is to 'redact' this shop-soiled, spotlight-hogging chancer and elect a new Speaker for the new Parliament.

(Esther Ranzen standing in his constituency would do the necessary defenestration).

"the best thing Cameron can do when he becomes PM "
you do not have a clue Max. When I said that the heat is off the expenses saga you disagreed. (as it had then moved onto a loss of faith in democracy in Britain)....


you disagreed, not just with me but with the rest of the country.

can bercow revive democracy.


can he stand up to the executive.



The hand of history is on his shoulder.



can he deliver.
who knows?



only time will tell I suppose....not long to go now - for conclusions to be drawn, by society.
tick,tock. I suppose.

This is a bit of a coup perhaps, but the Tories are really behaving in a ridiculous manner. Would an old Etonian toff have been a better option in the modern world? They need to get over it and work with Bercow to sort out the mess - and he will at least be able to raise the profile of parliament. Here's my funny take on it:
http://thestupidtimes.blogspot.com/2009/06/tories-furious-as-tory-is-elected-new.html

How would you have felt if someone had written:

"This is a bit of a coup perhaps, but the Tories are really behaving in a ridiculous manner. Would an black person have been a better option in the modern world?"

Class war is no different to racism.

Well, Nick The Tory party front bench is stuffed full of Etonians - and one of the whips, Charlie Wiggins, also had a phantom mortgage. I am afraid YOU will need to get over THAT! But why should we have to? If Morley and Chaytor are prosecuted by the DPP I cannot see how Wiggins can escape given that he committed the same offence.

Why oh why oh why do you insist on cheapening your commnet by lowering the tone down to one of supposed class.

The only class issues here are in your head. Could I expect a benign response if I lampooned working class people.

I fear not.

Why is outrage allowed in one direction and not the other.

Oh dear Nick, I give it 5 minutes before the Class War Police are on your case.

Sir George gave by far and away the best speech on the day imo.

Damn it was 11 minutes, got to give up this betting lark.

Alex,

I agree. Bercow's election doesn't exactly fill one with hope that Parliament is going to be repaired.

He's got less than a year to prove himself but I'm always in favour of giving people a chance to see how they do. Last time I thought that about someone it was Steve McClaren though so on second thoughts :-(.

Still if Bercow doesn't cut it, LL can form an unholy alliance with Nadine Dorries who said -

It may be the case that Bercow will become Speaker. I for one will be studying the procedure, to call a Speaker re-election following a general election, very carefully; and will have that procedure engrained on my heart ready to go when the Conservative party take power.

Nadine Dorries - Bercow as speaker.

He has about a year to prove everyone wrong, its totally down to him.

If he (miraculously) turns out to be a good speaker, then he will be untouchable.

You comment on the 'sore and vulnerable' remark, this and other things he has said suggest that he is in his own little world and creating his own reality; and in denial regarding the truth (or genuinely misinformed and unaware of the fact).

But the die is cast - its up to him (and his probable capital gains avoidance) until the next general election.

He may have a whopping marjority, but if his capital gains isn't sorted out, and without other mainstream parties opposing him, there are plenty of free voters who could support an antisleaze candidate.

They elected a 'flipper' who avoided CGT and still maintains that he did nothing wrong.

MP's obviously didn't understand the importance of electing a clean candidate.

An independent should stand against him in the general election - we don't need people who steal from us in Parliament.

But as things panned out consider the alternative. Sir George Young once infamously defined "the homeless" as "people you step over when you leave the opera". I think that speaks volumes about the character of this "gentleman". No wonder the Tories were behind him!

Tim how do you square criticising Young for something he said some time ago (which could be taken as him admitting that he had much to learn), against Bercow's past (i.e. having supported repatriation of immigrants).

You may think Bercow 'saw the light'; but it maybe he is a slimey chancer who will do whatever it takes to get the best for Bercow.

Sorry TT but to me Sir George Samuel Knatchbull Young, 6th Baronet, is representative of the archetypal gangling, privileged, moderately clever but not clever enough to be professorial high Tory... the kind of person who normally ends up in the army, church or politics by default, hunting, shooting and fishing not being so popular as a lifestyle these days as it once was don't you know? This is the second time he's tried for the Speaker's chair (the last time being in 2000) so he's once... twice... two times a failure! As for his comment on the homeless I regard that more as a revealing Freudian slip which allows us to glimpse the man beneath the facade; I don't think it was, as you so delicately put it, a "mistake" from a man with "much to learn". Blimey! Georgy Porgy was born in 1941 for goodness sake. He's no spring chicken and ought to have known better. Also Sir George was partly responsible for the botched railway privatisation which we all have to live with to this day.

In the words of Del Trotter: "George Young! - you plonker!".

Good call Alex. In my lifetime we have had an excellent speakers Bernard Weatherill and Betty Boothroyd, these figures were elected for different reasons to Bercow. IMHO Widdy would have followed that tradition of objectivity, independence and fairness.

Bercow has been elected to pxxx the Tories off; this is playing politics with our Parliament!. Well done Labour showing your true colours again.

"Bercow has been elected to pxxx the Tories off" - if he pisses them off that much then why didn't they ever remove the whip from him?

The conservatives don't withdraw the whip just because they don't like somebody -- they aren't socialists you know.

For once I agree with the article, probably a case of who is disliked the least, instead of who is best.

Anyway, I'm just glad it wasn't George Young that got it. He was our MP when I lived in Acton and managed to triple the rents on housing association properties (council had put some money in during the building process and had some say) over two years. It wouldn't bother me in the slightest if he was run over tomorrow.

A very fair and reasonable article. Bercow was chosen because to most Labour MP's following the lead of Brown, politics is all about the Red Tribe vs the Blue Tribe. That attitude shows both lack of vision and the continuing moral squalor of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

It say something for the dismal quality of Labour MPs when Frank Field, a man of utmost integrity for whom the electorate (remember them?) have great respect, couldn't get any support amongst them.

I'm a member of the electorate, Andrew, and I can't stand the crypto-Tory Kenneth Williams looky-likey Frank Field. Suicide bombers are men (and women) of integrity: what more commitment could there be to a cause than being willing to surrender your life for something you believe in. The trouble with integrity is that one man's integrity is another man's villainy. Poor old Frank. Kicked out of the Tory Party for his anti-apartheid views he had to turn his coat and join the Labour Party in order to have a political career. Hum. Jumping from one political party to another to pursue gainful employment? How about that for integrity? Of course you would doubtless say that Frank remained true to his principles, such as they are, and remained a Tory at heart... and with that I can wholeheartedly agree with you!

I don't really "get" the objection to changing parties. In every other area of life the ability to evolve one's way of thinking (especially from those ideas held in one's teens or twenties) is welcomed. I really don't like Frank Field's views, and know little of Bercow's. But changing one's political ideas does not seem to me a valid ground for attack.

One question is whether they were misrepresenting themselves all along - if so that is a valid objection.

Another is how strongly they professed to support their views - if they were less committed than they presented themselves to be that is a valid objection.

Another, assuming that they *were* genuine, is how mature/considered were they to have held views that led them into a party and all the way to the HoC only to change their minds - another valid objection.

As they say 'if you can fake sincerity then you are made' - and Bercow has built himself a bit of a reputation around that.

If Bercow genuinely changed his mind on repatriation of immigrants, maybe he'll change his mind on democracy and parliament? I wonder if he has ever changed his mind in a way that cost him, or whether his changes have always benefited him?

Sorry to wander off topic for a second, but anyone who thinks "Suicide bombers are men (and women) of integrity" are naive fools (in my very humble opinion). Suicide bombers are delusional and selfish cowards after a fast lane entry to Paradise and an eternal date with a 70 virgins. But none are so evil as the bastards who put them up to such acts--the villains who prize their social distinction so much as to be unwilling to practice what they preach.

Having known someone killed on 7/7 (there wasn't much left to put into a coffin) I do hope you or Mrs Tim Robins any Little Tim Robins' aren't on the next 9.20am Tube into Edgeware Station when the next brainwashed stool pigeon who has graduated from your local faith school (subsidised by the diverisity department of the Council no doubt) decides to pack his rucksack with fertiliser. If so, you might have reason to revise your admiration of the murdering b'stards.

And now, back to Mr Bercow.

Many will say, including me, that at least it isn't Beckett, but I share your sentiment that Bercow is not the ideal man for the job.

He may well serve the MPs well in parliament, in fact I think he is ideal for the members of the House, but I don't think in the medium to long term this choice will fair well with the general public. People learned to hate Martin for his apparent weakness in the House, but Bercow, I think he'll give the public something new to whinge about with every appearance he makes.

I would like to know though Alex, who would you have prefered as Speaker of the House?

I don't think any of them stood out as being particularly reputable. Parmjit Dhanda may have been a genuine moderniser, someone untainted by the indulgences and practices of the House...?

I'm not familiar with his work or views, just reading over his website now.

Personally I think Widdecombe would have been a good choice from the publics perspective. Due to numerous television appearances she has shown more sides to herself than the woman we saw announcing that drunks should be marched to a cashpoint. I also think she has a fair and balanced view now due to recent experiences and is more in touch with the public.

Only my opinion, but I think the Speaker of the House, as well as doing what is right for MPs has to also be percieved as doing the right thing for the general public. I'm not sure Bercow can manage the latter.

What does it say that there are no 'obvious' parliamentarians in the House ?

The speaker should be someone near the end of their political life - in their last or penultimate parliament.

There were just no decent candidates because they had to select from sitting MPs with nothing better to do...

And some people want a 'president of the EU' - where are decent candidates for that job supposed to come from? sheesh...