Dear All
There have been some great Speakers of the House of Commons
in the past, the most outstanding person to hold the chair was Betty Boothroyd,
now Baroness Boothroyd. Betty Boothroyd served as a Labour MP from 1973 to
1992. From 1992 to 2000, she served with distinction as Speaker of the
House of Commons. She was the first, and to date only, the female Speaker of
the House of Commons.
A full list of Speakers of the House of Commons can be found
on wiki, but for easy, here is the link.
Another great Speaker of the House was The Right Honourable Edward
Algernon FitzRoy who served the House during the War years of WW2, he was
present when Anthony Edan gave his speech in 1942 on the Holocaust.
Fast forward to present day, we have John Bercow, he was
formerly a Conservative MP before becoming the Speaker. As the Labour Party
were in their death throes in 2010, they decided to annoy the Conservatives by
backing John Bercow as Speaker, this led to the Speaker facing angry
Conservatives on the backbenches running little better than a hate campaign
against him. David Cameron, the then Prime Minister at the time far from
stamping this out allowed it to continue with sanction.
However, it wasn’t always an uphill struggle and here is a
clip, I would like you to watch.
David Cameron is now gone, but the anti Bercow brigade in
the Conservative ranks still have a ‘score’ to settle, they may feel they have
a grievance but their conduct is bring the reputation of the House of Commons
and politicising the Chair in a really disastrous way.
The Chair of the House of Commons must be neutral, seen to
be neutral and respected by MPs inside and outside the Commons. When Michael
Martin was Chair of the House, he allowed his tenure to be tainted by the
expenses scandal and eventually was forced out by the Tories. Bercow was the
Labour Party’s revenge on the actions of the Tories.
It appears that a Conservative MP James Duddridge, has
tabled a "no confidence" motion in the Speaker. Duddridge has a point
when he says that it is not for the Speaker to decide who comes to speak to
Parliament, this latest incident flared up as Bercow said that President Donald
Trump shouldn’t be allowed to speak in Parliament.
Was Bercow in the wrong to make his Trump comments, as an
individual, I would say no, but as the Speaker, it was inappropriate to do so.
If there is a witch hunt against Bercow, he just gave them a gift. Just before the
last election, William Hague tried to force out John Bercow, it was a dirty
trick on his way out of Parliament and entirely unworthy of him.
If you never have felt sorry for Bercow before, then view these
clips.
Conservative MP Charles Walker’s comment that he would
rather be an honourable fool than a clever man was aimed directly at William
Hague.
I don’t agree with John Bercow saying that he would bar Donald
Trump from addressing Parliament during his planned state visit
to the UK .
I also don’t agree with he should have publicly proclaimed
himself a ‘remain voter’ in last year’s EU referendum.
The Speaker of the House of Commons must remain neutral, John
Bercow has allowed his judgement to be clouded by events, given what has
happened and what he has been subjected to this is understandable but not
right. When Theresa May assumed the role of Prime Minister, she should have
held a private meeting to stamp out the group that feel they are justified in
running an open sore in Parliament. This isn’t good for democracy and it isn’t
good for the Commons.
Should May and her Cabinet support John Bercow?
This is entirely a matter for their conscience, but I think
they should, the wider picture is more important than what is increasingly
looking like a petty witch hunt.
Duddridge told BBC Radio 5 Live's Emma Barnett:
"Put it this way, I don't know any Cabinet ministers
that aren't supporting me. I think some
people may abstain. I would expect the Prime Minister to abstain. I had
expected David Lidington to abstain given that he's a parliamentary neighbour
and kind of chief interlocutor with John Bercow as leader of the Commons. But
he was quite robust at the weekend about not offering John Bercow his support. I
don't think there will be a single member of the Cabinet that will support John
Bercow. I've not spoken to every single one but I've spoken to a number of
Cabinet ministers, ministers, private secretaries, backbenchers and people from
all over the party."
I don’t support Conservative MP James Duddridge who has
tabled a "no confidence" motion in the Speaker; I think that Bercow’s
Trump comments were unfortunate considering who else has been invited to
Parliament.
I suppose the question is do we want to go through the same unedifying
spectacle that we all witnessed in 2015 in the House of Commons? If we do that means a pattern has developed
that if a group dislike the Speaker then they are fair game to be picked on and
forced out.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Sack him,,, mouthy twat anyway.
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