Speaker Bercow: well done

Posted on February 7 2017

Yesterday:

I second the opinion of Dennis Skinner: well done.

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8

8 Responses

  1. JOHN BACON says:
    February 7 2017 at 7:46 am

    However it is very strange that the BBC has the headline

    Speaker John Bercow criticised over Donald Trump comments

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38889941

  2. AliB says:
    February 7 2017 at 8:05 am

    And on the Today programme having just fed the Tory MP repeatedly the question should John Bercow step down, the MP gave reluctant measured answer- the BBC are now reporting that he was demanding Bercow step down.
    BBC doing May’s business at her request?

  3. Paul says:
    February 7 2017 at 1:27 pm

    Appropriately balanced? When the first comment sought on the remarks was that of Nigel Farage, someone who failed 7 times to get elected to parliament.

    Free publicity helped make Trump president. This overexposure of Farage is dangerous as well as tiresome.

  4. Dan Pilot says:
    February 7 2017 at 7:13 pm

    Well.. not really ” well done” . Seeing as Bercow. has in his tenure as Speaker
    kow towed on suppliant knee praising the virtues of Chinese , Vietnamese , North Korean Indonesian and Kuwaiti leaders — all within various publicly attended Westminster sanctums . Leaders of either outright dictatorships or extreme authoritarian regimes all.

    Surely on these criteria alone Trump could be amitted to the ” club”?

    Sauce for the goose….

    • Robin Stafford says:
      February 8 2017 at 12:21 pm

      There’s a big difference here. Few heads of state get invited to formally address the Houses and Im pretty sure that does not include the dubious states you mention. On the other hand there are many visitors to Parliament as part of a process of helping or persuading others to put in place proper parliamentary structures and processes, however poor their current structures might be orcdespotic their leaders.

      It’s easy to conflate the often dubious politicians who operate within those walls, with the people and processes that operate there and who are doing their best to keep things in line, despite the worst efforts of politicians to subvert them. Sadly the public often conflates the two, egged on by our right wing press and politicians who are only to keen to undermine any and all state institutions. As Matthew Paris memorably put it, we end up with a ‘lazy cynicism’ about politicians and politics which plays straight into the hands of the kinds of politicians who are now driving Brexit and who see Parliament and democracy critic processes as obstructions. Ironic given that one of their claimed reasons for leaving the EU and not healthy at all. So I’ll tend to stick up for people like a John Bercow

      I had the good fortune to have the Houses of Parliament as a client for a number of years which taught me a lot and made me realise how little we as a public tend to know about our own political process. MPs expenses is about as far as it goes for most people I talk to.

  5. Robin Stafford says:
    February 8 2017 at 10:04 am

    John Bercow has provided a useful reminder that Parliament is not run by or for the benefit of the government in power. Much as the Mail might like it otherwise. Good on him for reminding them