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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMy new political muse
This guy is force! Absolutely cut to the chase and no nonsense and I admit I love his voice and cutting responses to MPs and others. Very fun to watch.
Link to tweet
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Gothmog
(145,489 posts)Link to tweet
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Denzil_DC
(7,254 posts)Here he is demolishing a Tory who challenged him on a procedural point a couple of days ago:
Link to tweet
Oooooft.
Bercow: 'I have no intention of taking lectures on doing right by Parliament from people who have been conspicuous in denial of, and sometimes contempt for it...and I will not be pushed around by agents of the executive branch'
Full version:
angrychair
(8,732 posts)Thank you for sharing...perfect.
Denzil_DC
(7,254 posts)who have no shame in behaving like a pack of baying hooligans in the House. It's a toxic and broken forum for government, and its shortcomings have only become more glaringly apparent in the last few years, so he has to come on strong.
I don't share Bercow's politics, but I'm very glad he's Speaker at the moment.
angrychair
(8,732 posts)But you have to respect that level of swagger and political acumen on handling representatives
Denzil_DC
(7,254 posts)before being elected Speaker by members of the House of Commons.
The HoC Speaker is an odd role. It's supposed to alternate between members of the two major parties, though there are no term limits, which is what Bercow means when he refers to being re-elected repeatedly by the MPs in each Parliament.
Speakers are MPs, but by convention other parties usually don't run against them in their seats, though Bercow's faced challenges from UKIP, a Green and an independent in the last two general elections.
He takes his constitutional role seriously, hasn't always got things right, but has grown in stature (and as a hate figure among the Tories) since the Brexit vote, not least because May and her cronies have done so much in the way of stripping Parliament of its traditional oversight role and grasping unprecedentedly wide-ranging powers.
Celerity
(43,485 posts)He started out as a hard right Tory MP, but gradually drifted to the left. In 2007, before he decided to run for the Speaker of the House of Commons, there were rumours he was going to defect to Labour.
Here is his coat of arms
angrychair
(8,732 posts)If we ever met He and I might not agree on everything but we obviously have some common ground.
Thank you for sharing the coat of arms info, really interesting!
monmouth4
(9,709 posts)Congress, a friendly chat, if you will. It would be fun and I'm sure his opinions would be welcomed from strictly a friendly pov. It would also shore up our "special relationship" with Great Britain and just plainly be fun. Thoughts?