Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

John Bercow’s seething contempt for Brexiteers

Anyone who doubted that John Bercow is an arrogant blowhard who harbours a seething contempt for Brexiteers will surely have been disabused of their doubts last night.

After he announced his resignation as Speaker, and received a fawning and utterly unparliamentary round of applause from his fellow Brexitphobes on the Opposition benches, Bercow lost it. He went nuts.

He was puffing himself up, as usual, as the sole guardian of parliamentary convention and general political decency when an MP had the temerity to interrupt and contradict him.

Those who have accused me of bending the rules are utterly wrong, Bercow was saying. Tellingly, he kicked off his one-man orgy of self-congratulation by saying: ‘Can I just say…? Well, whether I can or not, I’m going to.’

What a wonderful and unwitting insight into his approach to parliament — he’ll do whatever the hell he wants, even if he isn’t meant to.

I am right and you are wrong, he continued.

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