The Mrs Bercow show

What, I suspect, would infuriate Sally Bercow most is if there was a complete media blackout over her appearance on ‘Celebrity’ Big Brother. As she made clear on entering the house, her whole aim is to annoy what she calls the ‘establishment.’

But at the risk of playing Bercow’s game, it’s worth debunking one argument that her defenders make. They say that she’s a person in her own right and so should be allowed to do what she wants, that her appearance should be defended on feminist grounds. But on the show, she’s not presenting herself as that. Instead, she’s there as the Speaker’s wife — that is her claim to fame. When one of the other housemates asked her why she was there last night, revealing most of the so-called celebrities didn’t know who their new celeb housemates were, she immediately referenced her husband.

If Bercow was appearing on the show as a political tweeter or as someone who stood for Westminster council in the Labour interest last year that would be one thing, but she’s not.