Order, Order
Jon Ridge
On Sunday the 21st of June, Michael Martin left his position as Speaker of the House of Commons, and resigned as an MP.
On Monday the 22nd, MPs attended the House to hear a series of speeches by the 10 candidates for the position of Speaker, followed by a Secret Vote.
Using a system known as Exhaustive Secret Ballot, which removes the candidate with the lowest number of votes, or those with less than 5%, from each round until one candidate is left with at least 50% of the vote.
After the first round of voting Parmjit Dhanda MP (26 votes), Richard Shepherd MP (15 votes), Sir Patrick Cormack MP (13 votes) and Sir Michael Lord MP (9 votes) were eliminated from the competition, leaving the remaining 6 members in the running.
These were John Bercow MP (179 votes), Sir George Young MP (112 votes), Margaret Beckett MP (74 votes), Alan Haselhurst MP (66 votes), Sir Alan Beith MP (55 votes) and Ann Widdecombe MP (44 votes).
After the second round of voting the number of votes for all except Sir George Young and John Bercow was reduced. Ann Widdecombe MP (30 votes) was eliminated from the contest, and following this 3 candidates withdrew: Margaret Beckett MP (70 votes), Alan Haselhurst MP (57 votes) and Sir Alan Beith MP (46 votes).
The final run off was between John Bercow, Conservative MP for Buckingham and Sir George Young, Conservative MP for North West Hampshire [and this author's constituency], with Mr Bercow winning with 322 votes to Sir George Young’s 271. John Bercow was elected the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons, and the first Jewish Speaker.
There have been reports of disquiet amongst the Tory benches, who felt that Bercow had in recent years drifted very close to New Labour, and no longer represented the Conservative Party. It seems that many Labour MPs believed that whilst they could not justify a third Labour Speaker in a row to the public, Bercow represented their closest candidate.
As a bonus he was deeply unpopular with the Conservative Party, with suggestions of only a handful of Conservative MPs actually voting for one of their own MPs.
Therefore, the election of a new Speaker was touted as a healing and uniting exercise, to help reform and clean up the Commons with cross-party support. In the end, however, it looks as if the Speakership of John Bercow has already created more questions.
So the man with few principles or deeply held convictions was elected. The man who changed his core beliefs and politics to suit his ambitions. How can someone change from being ultra right wing to ultra liberal ‘leftie’ overnight? What he calls his moment of ‘enlightenment’ Did he have Damascus Road experience? I don’t think so, more like the minute he realised he would have to court New Labour and Lib Dems.MPs favour, to achieve his ambitions of becoming Speaker of the House. It is then he must of decided to do whatever it took to achieve his goal. Even if it meant being disloyal to his own party and it’s leaders and ‘greasing up’ to the opposition at every opportunity. In other words he was prepared to sell his soul for the ‘pot of gold’ he yearned for. Close observers of John Bercow knew this; especially his Tory colleagues. No wonder they had such solemn faces when the result was announced. Only when prompted by David Cameron did a few Tory MPs give a slow and weak hand-clap, the rest decided to keep their arms crossed or hands firmly on their laps. One Tory MP shouted, ‘Not in my name!’ As the labour benches enjoyed their moment of childish spite with their smiling faces knowing they had left their final lasting legacy, by achieving something with their bloc vote that would hurt David Cameron and the Conservative Party when they get into power, long after New Labour sinks beneath the waves; in their rotten and stinking ship.
Knowing John Bercow’s liberal views on abortion and hearing about his ridiculous amendment that he tabled for the third reading of the Embryology Bill ( which wasn’t heard in the end) reflected his new ultra liberal views on moral issues. I therefore fear for the unborn children in the UK when the emotive issue is next debated in the House. I and many others will be watching for his promised fairness and impartiality on such issues. How will he stop himself from ridiculing people who disagree with him? Will he continue to use his old basic method of shutting down the debate, by personally attacking his opponents to undermine them and perhaps try and get a cheap laugh at their expense? A method used frequently by liberals when they are losing the argument. I and many others will be watching him very closely on important debates on moral issues.
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