It's been a very confident 24 hours for John Bercow. He rebuked the Defence Secretary yesterday for his "rank discourtesy" to the Commons for late publication of the Bernard Gray report. This morning he is in the newspapers urging MPs to repay money owed under the Legg review. Today he is making the ground on […]
Tough and very welcome words from John Bercow today. The new Speaker rebuked Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth for releasing the 'Gray report' on arms procurement just one hour before the Commons was due to debate it. Ministers have had the Gray report for a number of months. It finds average procurement over-runs are costing the […]
6.45pm: The Guardian is reporting that The Speaker has now called off the mole hunt. Mr Bercow issued this strong and very welcome statement: "I have never been asked to approve the continuation of any such investigation, which was started before I became Speaker, and am deeply disturbed to discover that more resources may have […]
When I endorsed John Bercow for the Commons Speakership, one of the reasons for my support was that I believed that as a committed parliamentarian he would work to enhance the power of backbench MPs. So it was interesting to hear how he has developed that principle as he delivered a lecture to the Hansard […]
The BBC revealed yesterday that John Bercow has recruited former Times commentator Tim Hames as his special adviser and spokesman. Mr Hames – who wrote an excellent Times column – will be paid at least £87,000. The appointment has raised eyebrows because, says The Telegraph, "the House of Commons already employs a team of press […]
Last week Simon Burns MP raised a point of order expressing concern that John Bercow's announcement about holding elections for the Deputy Speakers had appeared in the media before the Speaker had made the statement to the House. Speaker Bercow has just made a stern statement to the Commons in which he insisted that the […]
After chairing his first session of PMQs, Speaker Bercow made a short statement in which he made clear that he will take a tough line on ministers making announcements to the media rather than Parliament. As PoliticsHome records: Mr Bercow, making a statement to the House of Commons after Prime Minister's Questions, said that key […]
"Mr. Speaker-Elect, may I join the Prime Minister in offering my congratulations, and in wishing you well, not least in crossing that last hurdle that the Prime Minister referred to: the agreement of the monarch? I would like to thank the Father of the House for the way in which he conducted proceedings. I was […]
John Bercow MP – the bookmakers' favourite to be the next Speaker because of strong support from Labour MPs – has written to all MPs, sending them a 3,000 word Reform Prospectus for Parliament. Here's a PDF of what the Tory MP for Buckingham has called 'The Speakership in the Twenty First Century.' Pasted below […]
Here are the highlights from yesterday's Children, Schools and Families questions. Buckingham MP John Bercow advocated a more liberal exclusion policy: "Of course, schools sometimes mistake disability for disobedience. Children with special educational needs are nine times more likely to be permanently excluded from school, and the Government are rightly committed to reducing the incidents […]
There are a handful of interesting answers in the latest Hansard. Buckingham MP John Bercow reminded the useful idiots that Cuba is not Paradise, but rather a dystopian nightmare: "John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received of the number of people convicted of the crime […]
Health questions were put in the House of Commons yesterday. The situation at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which has been slammed by the Healthcare Commission for "appalling" emergency care at Stafford Hospital, stood out. Between 2005 and 2008 about 400 more people died there than would ordinarily have been expected. Stone MP Bill Cash expressed his […]
Questions were put to ministers from the Department for Children, Schools and Families department yesterday. The very last question of the session was from John Bercow, Buckingham MP, and addressed the loathsome phenomenon of bullying: "Given that approximately 6,000 children a year exclude themselves from school after suffering extreme bullying, approximately 50 per cent. of […]
There are a number of intriguing written answers in the latest edition of Hansard. Shoreham & East Worthing MP (and Shadow Minister for Children) Tim Loughton uncovered some diplomatic buckpassing by the Government, through a question to the Olympics Minister: "To ask the Minister for the Olympics if she will invite the Dalai Lama to […]
John Bercow, now MP for Buckingham, was a 16-year-old school pupil in Margaret Thatcher's own constituency at the time of the 1979 general election. I have no recollection at all of whether I stayed up all night on 3rd/4th May 1979, but I do recall the campaign itself. As a pupil at Finchley Manorhill Comprehensive […]