If only he’d read the job description a little bit more closely, we might have avoided all these rows. Unfortunately for John Bercow, the man who loves the sound of his own voice more than anything else, the role of Speaker really doesn’t do what it says on the tin. Traditionally, the Speaker has taken a definite back seat, bellowing the odd ‘order, order’ in the Commons but otherwise maintaining a rather reticent and impartial position.
Judging by Bercow’s behaviour over the past few months, it would seem that he hasn’t got the memo. This summer alone, he’s travelled to Romania, Burma and New Zealand, observing wryly at his final destination that, ‘There must be some ministers in my country who would find the prospect of my being relocated the better part of 12,000 miles away rather enticing.’
Nor is Bercow standing in for the Royal Family while they coo over their new baby – he doesn’t just turn up and shake hands.
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