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Bernard Ingham: Sick Parliament fails to find a remedy with new Speaker
IT is, of course, possible that John Bercow will prove to be a great Speaker of the House of Commons. Nobody knows how anyone will actually perform in the top job until he or she gets it. But I could never have voted for him and do not expect much.
Indeed, I regard this Parliament, if not entirely mad, as certainly 54 per cent loopy. That was Bercow's share of the vote. In its moment of travail, at the nadir of its public esteem, it has chosen a man to heal its reputation who commands less than universal respect after, by all accounts, oiling his way into the office in a most blatant way.
At least he had the decency to show little of the reluctance that a Speaker-elect is supposed to exhibit in being dragged to the chair.
I conclude that the sooner we are rid of this Parliament, the better. After the Long, Short and Rump Parliaments of the 17th century, we now have the Sick Parliament. Its illness has rendered it bereft of talent, devoid of judgment and divided in its choice of Speaker.
That does not solve the problem of Speaker Bercow, since he sees himself as serving for two full Parliaments – always assuming he is not as hamfisted as his predecessor. In truth, I do not think he will be. Let me, therefore, explain why I think the Commons has made a serious mistake.
It was not exactly spoiled for choice. Certainly, I would not have felt happy voting for any one of the 10 candidates – a mob-handedness that suggests a dearth of talent.
The first two rounds of voting also showed how fragmented were the preferences. Here was a Commons so infirm of purpose in the face of a crying need to mend its ways that it could only work its way to a solution by a convoluted and obscure process of elimination.
That process – along with all that had gone before – has raised the question as to the extent of Whips' attempted interference in the election. Were Labour MPs urged to go for Bercow to annoy the Tories, who mostly regard him as a cuckoo in their nest? Were the Tories rallied to the drippingly wet Sir George Young primarily to try to stop Bercow?
We shall never know since this was the first secret ballot for Speaker. But such suspicions are not the best basis for anyone who has to live down the previous incumbent's widely criticised partisanship. Bercow, in reality, starts needing seriously to win support from nearly half the House rather than being able to take it for granted.
If we are to believe some MPs, they eventually plumped for the Member for Buckingham because he represents a break with the cosy club of Westminster and is a relatively youthful and vigorous reformer.
Far be it from me to decry the outsider or enthusiasm for reform. Nor can I criticise those who have made a political journey, whether to the left or right, even if Bercow and I have moved in opposite directions. But his odyssey from the loony Right to left of centre covers the greater distance and has left him seriously afflicted with political correctness.
In short, I worry about his grasp of essentials. Yes, he must sort out – and quickly – the awful mess over expenses and allowances. In doing so, he must get a grip of the detail and its presentation. The public contempt which last week's publication of censored expenses claims brought, is a serious warning against a lack of attention to detail and common sense.
It is possible that Bercow will pass muster on this issue, even though he disconcertingly now maintains that MPs have not been feathering their own nests. But their shabby exploitation of expenses and allowances is not the main reason for the Commons' decline. It is because MPs, especially over the last 12 years, have connived with the Government's domination of the Commons and their own increasing irrelevance.
Whether Bercow has the strength to take on the Government to end this is another matter. But his notion of converting the Speaker into a Parliamentary ambassador, emitting press notices with every bound, strikes me as sheer indulgence.
He will go down in history not because he became a media celebrity but because he ran a tight, tough, honourable Commons ship that held the Government to fierce account. Governments have been getting away with murder for too long. That is Mr Speaker's real problem – and ours, too.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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