The Speaker: Bercow or just plain Berk?

The role of Speaker is one which is steeped in tradition and history.  The Speaker presides over the House; chairing debates, calling MPs to speak and maintaining order.  Therefore it is essential that an MP chosen for such a role is able to remain completely neutral and free from bias, regardless of his chosen party.


Having been an avid viewer of PMQs over the last few weeks, I am seriously at a loss to explain how the current Speaker (John Bercow, Con, Buckingham) is fulfilling any of these demands of the job.  The amount of times that he has allowed Gordon Brown to get away with not answering questions is beyond belief; as too is the number of times he has allowed Lord Ashcroft to be brought up by the Government whilst blocking almost all questions on Trade Unions funding from the opposition.

Add to this the fact that his wife is a Labour Councillor who is extremely vocal with her anti-Conservative (just take a look at her Twitter page) views as well as the fact that Bercow has never been the strongest advocate of the Conservative cause (he came extremely close to defecting to Labour in 2007), and you end up with a number of reasons why Mr. Speaker may well not have the best interests of all the parties in the Chamber at heart.

As a matter of fact, it is widely speculated that only three Conservative MPs voted for him in the Speaker's Election in 2009; with the majority of his support coming from the Labour benches.

Little wonder then, that there is currently a burgeoning campaign amongst Conservative supporters and MPs to have Bercow removed from the seat; either by "natural selection" in the upcoming General Election, or by actively removing him from the post should the Conservative Party form the next government.  Surprisingly enough, this campaign is slowly starting to receive the backing of Labour MPs too.

Having been particularly impressed with his command of the Budget debate on Wednesday afternoon, I for one would very much like to see the current Deputy Speaker, Sir Alan Haselhurst take up the chair.  Having had a seat in the House since 1977, Sir Alan is an experienced MP who should command the respect of Members across the House.

Whoever succeeds Bercow, one thing is clear; his biased nature is one of the key hurdles to be overcome if we want to rid this House of the corruption which is currently devouring it.