Quote of the day 10th January 2019

"The tragedy of John Bercow’s behaviour is that even when he goes, the chair will never fully recover its reputation for impartiality."

(James Forsyth)


"Sadly, it is in the nature of Governments that they tend to push the boundaries, or even flatten conventions outright when given the chance. Administrations of all stripes have done so over the last 20 or more years.

It is an important role of Parliament, and particularly of the Speaker, to try to resist those efforts. So yes, John Bercow has a responsibility to defend the legislature from excesses of the executive – but as a guardian of the constitution he also has an especially important responsibility to obey it himself."


"Now he has duly intervened, contrary to the expert advice of the Clerks and in breach of their interpretation of Standing Orders, in order to allow a particular amendment that he likes. Other potential amendments were not given an equal privilege."


"By shattering convention in this way, Bercow has not just indulged himself, he has given license to future Speakers to do the same – and inspired MPs to permanently fear the prospect that they will do so. In the absence of faith in the true impartiality of the Chair, the obvious alternative is for both parties to ditch the next convention down the list, the respectful alternation of which party provides the Speaker, and instead compete to put in place Speakers whom they openly expect to be their partisan servants.

Even if you like his actions today, or happen to believe the amendment itself to be positive for Parliament, it is important to consider what the permanent cost will be.

Not only would the business of the Commons suffer from a move to more openly partisan, biased Speakers, but Parliament itself will lose out from such a change.

A strong Speaker, respected on all sides due to their even-handed pursuit of the role and defence of the rules, is in a better position to defend Parliament’s privileges when they are threatened by the executive. If it becomes acceptable for MPs to simply put in place a Speaker with whom the majority of them agree politically, and to expect that Speaker will use the office to serve their politics, then we risk replacing a bulwark of the legislature with simply another tool of the government of the day."


(Mark Wallace, extracts from an article on Conservative Home about Speaker Bercow's decision to rule that the Grieve Amendment could be accepted while allowing his officials to reject at least one other amendment. The full article can be read here.)