Two more views to compare and contrast...
Impossible! They voted for someone worse than Gorbals Mick
By Quentin Letts
Daily Mail
There he stood in the big green chair, puffed up like an amphibian that had scoffed too many volauvents. 'My first thought at this time,' he said from Parliament's bully pulpit, 'is, as you will understand, of...'
He was going to mention his wife but at this point a female voice from the Tory benches shouted: 'Your wages.'
The same female voice - Nadine Dorries? - heckled the Father of the House when he announced Mr Bercow's 'election as Speaker'. The voice cried: 'As a Labour Speaker!'
Rancour, partisanship, a figure whose political philosophy dodges round the place like a bouncy ball: yes, folks, the House of cheats and nodding oil derricks just got its perfect Speaker.
They went and did the impossible yesterday. They voted for someone who could be even worse than Gorbals Mick!
Large parts of the Tory benches refused to clap his election and they looked thoroughly sickened, sitting with arms crossed and shaking their heads. Real, gutchurning hatred. Little Squeaker Bercow has his work cut out.
The day took the format of a sandcastle-kicking competition. Each round gave MPs the chance to demolish a candidate's beautifully constructed dreams of glory.
The first round, announced at 5.10pm, saw Sir Michael Lord (Con, Suffolk C), Sir Patrick Cormack (Con, Staffs S), Richard Shepherd (Con, Aldridge) and Parmjit Dhanda (Lab, Gloucester) have their castles trampled on and reduced to nothing.
Sir Michael mentioned that he once played rugger against the South Africans (in the days of apartheid). Not a good way to win round Labour voters.
Mr Dhanda, the 37-year- old unknown who cleverly used this election as a promotional exercise (a little hard, maybe - Parmjit is a decent stick), asked: 'Do we all get it?' Get what, Parmjit? The Beano every week? A cuddle in the morning from our beloved?
Sir Patrick had mentioned Speaker Lenthall's celebrated speech 'that January day in 1642'. Labour MPs laughed at his tone of familiarity. Sir Patrick, gamely: 'Yes, I was there!' Sir Alan Beith (Lib Dem, Berwick) spoke but it might have been a mermaid coughing, so little impression did it make. Ditto Margaret Beckett (Lab, Derby S). She had drawn first straw and the House was cold. It remained so.
Hampshire's Sir George Young (Con), who lost in the last round, gave the strongest speech. Ann Widdecombe (Con, Maidstone) never achieved lift-off, although she cited old Leftie Dennis Skinner (Lab, Bolsover) as a past ally. Mr Skinner's eyes bulged with horror.
Widdo said it was vital a new Speaker have support on all sides. Mr Bercow, with that fake way of his, nodded firmly.
Yet the only other Tory openly supporting him - apart from his oddball grunt Julian Lewis (New Forest E) - was Charles Walker, a brittle creature from Broxbourne.
In his application speech Mr Bercow spoke fluently but not quite 'without notes' as the trusting souls of the Press Association reported.
He kept glancing down to his left to notes held by sidekick Lewis. Yes, a crib sheet. It's the Bercow way.
Bercow had a long riff mimicking an unnamed elderly grandee who, he said, had ejaculated with scorn when asked to vote for the Bercow campaign. Ancient Sir Peter Tapsell (Con, Louth), clearly.
It was interesting that Mr Bercow resorted to mockery of a Tory in his speech. The Labour benches loved this. But it perhaps gives licence to any of us who might be tempted to mock Mr Bercow right back.
Five minutes after the first ballot result I saw Sir Patrick wander forlornly out of the Chamber. Not a person went up to him to say 'bad luck'.
Between the votes there was milling time and we could see the vipers slithering round their eggs.
Bercow-ites were active, consulting lists, number-sucking, leaning into ears. Candidate Bercow swaggered round the floor with his springy thumbs held at erect angles.
His Labour- supporting wife watched from above. Albert Owen (Lab, Anglesey) slipped an arm round his side. Patricia Hewitt (Lab, Leicester W) had a long word.
The result came just after 8.30. When it was announced Mr Bercow blew out his cheeks with relief.
Mr Lewis clapped him on the back. The rest of the people sitting round him looked as though they had just ingested a dodgy egg. The response among mainstream Tory MPs? I write this having just finished speaking to one.
Sickened by Labour's support for a philosophical chameleon on the grounds that he was the ultimate non-Conservative, he called Mr Bercow's election 'the worst sort of bloody political shenanigans'.
There is determination among such people that another election for Speaker be held at the start of the next Parliament.
Mr Bercow's little helpers, by then, may be thinner on the ground.
He may find himself sailing out of that Chair faster than a lump of mashed potato off a schoolboy's fork.
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Steve Richards: This man's triumph reveals the Tories' dark side
The Independent
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Five myths whirl around the election of John Bercow as Speaker. The false assumptions shed light that extends well beyond a single parochial contest.
The first myth was outlined by the shadow Leader of the House, Alan Duncan, on yesterday's Today as he sought to explain why Tory MPs loathe Bercow. Duncan said his colleagues were angry because they felt he had sucked up to Labour MPs over the years in order to achieve his ambition of becoming Speaker. In fairness I should add that Duncan distanced himself from this view, although he was one of those who could not disguise his dismay when the result was announced.
The fatal flaw in the argument is that until recently it seemed almost certain the election for Speaker would take place in the next parliament when the Conservatives are expected to be the biggest party and Labour a much diminished force. It was only after the expenses saga that the former Speaker was forced out prematurely and a vacancy suddenly arose. Until then nearly everyone at Westminster assumed Michael Martin would stagger on until the election. If he had done so Bercow would have been better placed sucking up to his Conservative colleagues. Bercow chose not to do so. It might be difficult for some Conservative MPs to accept, but perhaps he spoke out on policy issues partly out of principle.
This brings us on to the second myth. Anyone watching the anger on the faces of Tory MPs when the result was announced might assume that Bercow was a raving leftie. In fact he has made a stand on a number of limited issues including his support for gay adoption and for the abolition of the anti-gay Section 28. He lost his job on the front bench under Michael Howard partly for arguing that the budget for international development should be maintained rather than cut. Bercow's reward for being genuinely progressive on a limited number of issues was the loathing disdain of virtually the entire parliamentary Conservative party.
The second myth leads on to the third. There seems to be a fairly widespread assumption the Conservatives have modernised under the leadership of David Cameron. Evidently they have not modernised enough if they can get so worked up about Bercow's modestly progressive views.
Partly they are angry because some Labour MPs were playing games, electing the one Tory they cannot stand. No doubt some Labour MPs were mischief making pathetically, but the fourth myth is that Labour benefits politically from the election of Bercow. The opposite is closer to the truth.
For Labour the most expedient outcome would have been the election of Sir George Young. With Boris Johnson wielding power in London and Cameron seeking a move to No 10, voters might have asked whether there is a limit to the number of old Etonians they wish to rule over them. As a bonus for Labour it is highly likely that Bercow would have defected, not least after the waves of hate from his own side in recent weeks. If he had done so he would have argued that contrary to their claims the Conservatives have not changed very much since the last election. Now Bercow is neutered and can no longer pose a threat as a genuinely progressive Tory contemplating a move to Labour.
The neutering of Bercow is the key to the fifth myth. Some Tories fear, and perhaps some Labour MPs hope, Bercow will be biased. He will not be. There is no scope for bias in what is a limited brief. Any candidate for Speaker stands on the basis that he or she is happy to leave the old political battles to others. Bercow has decided he wants to be a high profile parliamentarian rather than an active Tory or Labour MP.
I have no idea whether Bercow will be any good at the job, although as I wrote last week he would have been my choice. But the Tories' fuming sense of entitlement as they look towards power and their anger at the rise of a moderniser to a position of limited influence raise fresh questions about what they would be like if they win the next election.
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