John Bercow has just been re-elected unopposed as Speaker of the House of Commons. Those who had been hoping to get rid of Bercow decided not to pursue this to a vote this week, and so he is back in the chair. In his speech, he cracked a joke at the expense of Labour, saying that he would like the words on his own tombstone to be ‘he was the backbenchers’ champion’. He then sat through a welcome speech from David Cameron, wearing a slightly wry smile.
That wry smile was Bercow recalling the last hours of the last Parliament, in which the Tories tried to stitch him up by sneaking through a rule change that would elect the speaker by secret ballot. Parliament descended into uproar, with even those who thought the principle might be a good thing standing up to oppose the shabby way in which it had been brought to MPs.
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