John Bercow (who?) elected as new Speaker

I am finding it hard to get excited about this “new speaker” debate, but the big news is that John Bercow (who?) was elected as the Mr. Speaker yesterday evening. For a long time in the “campaign” he was seen as the favourite, though at the last minute Margaret Beckett took the lead in this mystery polling, who in fact came third.

Who?

John Bercow is, so they say, a Tory by name but a Labourite by nature. Nadine “Mad Nad” Dorries was on the Today program sulking that the vote was rigged because the candidate she wanted didn’t win. He’s deeply unpopular on the Right which he used to his advantage to lure the opposite side, the one with the working majority.

John Bercow was thus “the least bad option” for Labour MPs who, according to Mad Nad, engaged in a simple bout of partisanship by picking a Tory that the Tories all hated. Plenty of Conservatives who follow me on Twitter were angry that there would be “another Labour speaker after all”, and the meeja (media) were chuntering away suggesting that “tradition” dictates that the Speakership alternates, which is both factually innacurate and historically untrue.

However, I am a little concerned about his political history; sources are conflicted on this, so I’ll move on for now.

Whipping up a story

The Tories, wily as they are, tried to spin some ludicrous story that the vote was being whipped in order to place another Labour member in the chair. This was of course anti-Labour enough to have been picked up by the Daily Mail and Beckett’s eventual withdrawal as some sort of triumph against evil party forces.

Not only was it not a matter for government (no party opinion, thus no whipping) the plot allegations continued to spread.

The rest of them

Apart from Beckett, the only person even I had ever really heard of was the dreadful Anne Widdicombe. She is stepping down at the next election (in about a year) and so wouldn’t be able to get anything meaninful done.

I can’t imagine job I would like her to do least, not to make light of physical characteristics, but I don’t want a Speaker who sounds like a drowning stegasaurus. At least Michael Martin had a soft voice when he said “Order.” I would have felt pity for even the most devious MP who had to listen to her in the chamber more than once.

I sort of liked Sir Alan Haselhurst, if only because he had already been Deputy Speaker for so long, though he didn’t really have the skills for it.

The Labour Conspiracy

The Tory blogosphere again cried foul that someone with so little support (it was a secret ballot, so we’re all just making things up) on the Conservative side could win.

As if they didn’t realise that Labour still has a strong majority (for now). I think the way Martin was kicked out was reactionary and disgraceful, but it serves the Tories right that they got someone they didn’t like. You could chalk it up to Karma. That said, the Tories are already sharpening the knives for after the election.

So if you haven’t seen it elsewhere yet, Tom Harris writes:

A LABOUR colleague was in the toilet next to the chamber just before the first ballot, when he was joined by David Cameron in the adjacent urinal.

“David, I’m about to vote Tory for the very first time in my life,” said my friend jovially.

“John Bercow doesn’t count!” replied Cameron.