order! order!
When time & opportunity allows I do like to tune into Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions. Admittedly not often the most edifying spectacle of our democracy it does however highlight the knockabout two-party nature of our current political structure with one party in the red corner, the other in the blue. And when ‘seconds out’ is called it’s the job of the Speaker of the House of Commons to ensure it’s a clean fight with no low-blows!
The current holder of this esteemed office, dating back to the 14th century, John Bercow, is nothing if not a colourful, yet divisive figure. Recently described by the Washington Post as “a pint-sized disciplinarian…theatrical, sharp-tongued and proactive”, his distinctively unique bellow of “Or-der! Or-der!” and expressively colourful diction have caught the attention of the world: of particular note are his put-downs of MPs for acting as “incorrigible delinquents”, for behaving with “yobbery and public school twittishness”, for “chuntering from a sedentary position ineloquently and for no obvious reason, benefit or purpose” and one particular honourable member of being “a stupid, sanctimonious dwarf”.
Having been a tory MP for many years and being elected Speaker just prior to Cameron ascending to the throne, you’d be forgiven for assuming he is one of the inner Eton sanctum, but as it turns out, you couldn’t be further from the truth.
John Bercow certainly does not have the background of your average tory grandee. The son of a north London cabbie, and the grandson of Romanian Jewish immigrants (Berkowitz being the family name), he attended a common-or-garden comprehensive in Finchley before reading Government & Politics at Essex University. His early ambitions for a professional tennis career, where for a time he was ranked #1 Junior Player in the UK, was thwarted by the onset of bronchial asthma. Starting out true to type he sat on the far-right on the Conservative Party and, as a member of the Monday Club, actively supported the assisted repatriation of Commonwealth immigrants, before experiencing something of a Damascene conversion and becoming one of the party’s most outspoken liberals. Many ascribe this to the influence of his wife Sally, also a converted tory, who unsuccessfully sat as a New Labour candidate.
An irreligious outspoken humanist who has actively courted controversy by being something of a backbenchers’ champion, Bercow’s most contentious moment turned on the somewhat dry issue of his power to choose exactly which amendments to bills or motions can be debated upon. Earlier this year he singlehandedly, against both all convention and legal advice, chose to allow a government Brexit business motion to be amended by an avowed tory remainer, which then required the Prime Minister to table a motion within three days on proposed alternative plans if her Brexit deal was rejected by Parliament. She subsequently lost the vote on the amendment and had only those three days to present a ‘new plan’. Which was again rejected.
In reality this meant that if Parliament makes no decision, then we leave on a no-deal basis, and the Speaker was attempting to force the Commons to make a decision: either accept May’s deal or take responsibility for a no-deal scenario, and accept the consequences. A further pre-emption to prevent a vote on a motion which was “substantially the same” as previously rejected, compounded the Brexiters’ complaint that he remains a compromised and biased individual.
Throughout the centuries the job of Speaker, to communicate the Commons’ opinions to the monarch and vice-versa, has proved to be particularly perilous. Seven Speakers have been executed – hence the tradition of the new incumbent having to be dragged reluctantly to the Speaker’s chair. If the tory right have their way there may well be an eighth on the way!
