The Spectator’s Notes | 9 February 2017

As we have been reminded this week, the most famous words (apart from ‘Order, order’) ever uttered by a Speaker of the House of Commons were those of William Lenthall. When King Charles I entered Parliament in search of the ‘five birds’ in 1642, Lenthall knelt to the King but told him, ‘I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me.’ It is only on that basis that the Speaker speaks. As soon as John Bercow said — of the speculative possibility that Donald Trump should address both Houses of Parliament — ‘I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and sexism’ meant that the speech should not take place, he was out of order. His strong feelings are irrelevant, and it is unparliamentary of him to express them. Mr Bercow says he was putting forward the views of many MPs. The phrasing of the question from the Labour MP Stephen Doughty, which prompted Mr Bercow’s answer, certainly suggests the thing was cooked up between them. But Speaker Lenthall did not say ‘as some MPs are pleased to direct me’: he was speaking of the will of the whole House. Mr Bercow took no steps to ascertain that will. As a result of his exaltation of self over role, ‘Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief.’

We have been hereabouts before. When President Reagan was due to pay his visit to Britain in 1982, his adviser Michael Deaver leaked the secret plan for him to address MPs and peers in Westminster Hall. The Labour leader, Michael Foot, was furious at Mrs Thatcher for not consulting him. He complained, constitutionally correctly, that the invitation must come from Parliament, not government. Mrs Thatcher was upset about possible insult to ‘our staunchest ally’, especially when the White House suggested it might be better to pull out of the speech altogether.