Speaking for myself

Some entertaining remarks on Speaker Bercow from the saner commenters at Harry's Place.

We might forgive him if he was truly witty, charming and impartial. But he is none of those things. He just thinks he is.

... and

1. He had his hand in the expenses till. Apparently he couldn’t quite recall whether he had paid capital gains tax on the sale of one of his houses.

2. He is not a figure to bridge the party divide. Labour know his election is a smack in the face to the Tories, just as - say - Frank Field’s election (were he standing) would have been a smack in the face to the Labour benches.

3. He is a jokey figure lacking in gravitas, a grinning clown who will no doubt be at ease on the daytime TV sofas but will add nothing to the institution of Parliament.

At the very moment when our democratic assembly needs an injection of integrity, impartiality and gravitas we get someone who represents personal enrichment, party division and a fatal lack of seriousness.

The best in the Commons was this, from Cameron:

I also noted, as all colleagues did, what you said about casting away your past political views, and I think that on the Conservative Benches we would say, “Let’s hope that includes all of them.”

Heh.