Since the — fast depleting — SNP 56 descended on Parliament last year, there have been a number of incidents — from clapping in the Chamber to trespassing through the Chancellor’s office — that suggest the majority are not taking to Westminster etiquette like ducks to water.
However, could it be one of the SNP’s longest standing MPs who has the most to learn? Today Angus MacNeil — the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar since 2005 — was taken to task in the chamber by the speaker over his unstatesman-like behaviour. Bercow accused MacNeil of chewing gum while contributing to the Brexit debate:
‘Mr MacNeil, you are an exceptionally boisterous fellow and in the course of your boisterous behaviour you appear to be chewing some sort of gum. I mean I have great aspirations for you to be a statesman but I think your apprenticeship still has some distance to travel.’
It seems with Bercow’s arch-enemy Cameron out the way, the Speaker has now turned his focus to the SNP.
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