Threat to Order?

 

I apologise for the lack of posts in recent days - I've been very busy. Central to this burst of activity has been Hansard (which I've been reading online in order to gather evidence for a paper I am preparing on scrutiny at Westminster on Education matters.) Pretty heavy going at times - but I came across this little gem -

Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): What sort of spell has the Secretary of State cast on her Front-Bench team? I have never seen a bunch of numpties with such a lack of vision and passion. I went to five schools in my constituency on Friday. They are crying out for new teachers. They cannot recruit. What will she do about that?

........ 

Mr Speaker: Order. For the record, the use of the word “numpties” is arguably tasteless and a matter of subjective opinion, but I do not think it constitutes a threat to order.

Parliamentary Reform

Last Thursday I attended a "Parliament Week" event at the Guildhall. It was addressed by the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow. Further speeches were made by Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield (Peter Hennessy, the historian); Lord Desai (Meghnad Desai, Economist) and Michael Cockerell (Journalist and Documentary Maker - The Great Offices of State; The Secret World of Whitehall).

Questions were taken (mine is at 59 mins 50 secs to 1 hr 00 mins 25 secs - I was deliberately provocative - but the point remains, the Lords is very limited in its ability to effectively challenge the Government of the Day).

 

The BBC Parliament broadcast can be accessed at http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b0170435/

The Speaker's Constituency

There are two models os speakership. In the United States House of Representatives the "majoritarian model" has been long established. The Speaker comes from the party holding a majority of seats, and remains the key leader of that party. In the House of Commons the newly elected Speaker leaves their original party - and even after completing their service - remains as an independent. Most Speakers upon retirement take a seat in the House of Lords, and sit as a crossbencher. This model can be referred to as the "moderator speakership". [There is an excellent description of both, and a discussion of why the original moderator model adopted in the first Congress gave way to the current majoritarian model in "Masters of the House" by Roger Davidson; Susan Webb Hammond and Raymond W Smock].

While the British Speaker is no longer a member of a party, he (or she - Betty Boothroyd was Speaker from 1992 - 2000 - her "Autobiography" is an excellent read - and describes her experience working in Congress during the early 1960s!) - remains a Member of Parliament, representing his constituency. At election time a Speaker seeking to remain at Westminster stands as "The Speaker seeking re-election". It is said that there is a convention that Speakers are not opposed for re-election, but the reality is that they now usually face at least fringe candidates - and in 1974 Selwyn Lloyd faced both Labour and Conservative opponents in his Wirral constituency. Nationalist candidates have challenged George Thomas (1979) and Michael Martin (2001 & 2005). Speaker Bercow faced a very active and high profile campaign by UKIP this year - and another candidate, a former Tory MEP, overcame the UKIP campaign by gaining over 20% of the votes. Speaker Bercow failed to win a majority of votes (47.3% of votes cast). He had faced 10 opponents. Full results here.

Speaker Bercow's constituency is Buckingham - which is adjacent to Milton Keynes South, where I am a resident [Some of the Arriva buses in the city STILL have the UKIP election adverts on them!].  Once the Buckingham constituency covered Milton Keynes - Robert Maxwell was MP when the new city was created. Now it covers the county town and a large rural area. John Bercow maintains a website - reminding his constituents that he remains an active constituency MP, providing the same services as any ordinary MP would do (though it is thought that a Minister receiving a representation from Mr Speaker may give greater weight to it!).

Parliament in an anti-politics age

The Speaker of the House of Commons gave this year's Hansard Society/Political Studies Association Lecture. Sadly I missed it, due to my teaching commitments at Leicester University. However, the Hansard Society recorded the speech and an audio recording is available here. The House of Commons has released the text which can be read here.

Towards the beginning of his speech he says - "It is a cruel paradox that at a time when MPs have never worked harder, their standing has rarely been lower. Let me be brutally honest about the scale of what has occurred.

I cannot think of a single year in the recent history of Parliament when more damage has been done to it than this year, with the possible exception of when Nazi bombs fell on the chamber in 1941.

The difference is that the physical wreckage then was done by dictators whereas responsibility for the reputational carnage inflicted this year lies with the House."

The speech contains both a diagnosis of the problems - and suggestions for the way ahead. As with yesterday's post I would appreciate any comments you have to make.

Further information is available about the sponsors of this annual event.

• Hansard Society
• Political Studies Association

Speaker discusses Commons Practices

John Bercow

The new Speaker of the House of Commons has been elected. John Bercow won on the third ballot by 322-271 votes . He remains the Speaker-Elect until confirmed by the Queen (expected at 9.45pm today.) He is regarded as the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons. The line of Speakers is generally traced back to Sir Peter De La Mere in 1376.

A Biography can be found at http://biographies.parliament.uk/parliament/default.asp?id=25808.

His own website is http://www.johnbercow.co.uk/

A House of Commons Library Paper is available at http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/m02.pdf about the roles and history of the Speaker.

Hustings

The Hansard Society organised a hustings in advance of next week's election (Monday 22nd June) of a new Speaker for the House of Commons. It was filmed by BBC Parliament and is due for broadcast on that channel at 9pm (UK time) on Sunday 21st. I'd recommend watching it. The hustings lasted for two hours, but it was both fascinating and encouraging.

The potential candidates who spoke, and then answered questions were

- Margaret Beckett MP

- Sir Alan Beith MP

- John Bercow MP

- Sir Patrick Cormack MP

- Parmjit Dhanda MP

- Sir Alan Haselhurst MP

- Sir Michael Lord MP

- Richard Shepherd MP

- Ann Widdecombe MP

- Sir George Young MP

The meeting was chaired by Peter Riddell , of the Times and Chairman of the Hansard Society. His first task was to draw lots to settle the order of speaking. Each candidate had up to five minutes to speech - and all kept within time. I am sure that there will be reports in the UK media - a colleague who sat next to me, and who has had a long involvement with Hansard Society events, observed that he had never seen so many representatives of the print and broadcast media in attendance at a Hansard Society function. The following are my own notes, and I make no claims about accuracy or representativeness.

Alan Beith was the first to speak. He regarded "maintaining effort to make parliament more effective" as a priority. He suggested that the House as a whole should occasionally sit outside Westminster. Parmjit Dhanda expressed the view that the public "don't want the language of Erskine May, but...plain, blunt English". He too advocated taking Parliament out to the country.

Richard Shepherd described himself as the "back to the future candidate". He spoke passionately of his view that Parliament once meant something. "It needs to again". He stressed that the House of Commons is NOT the government. Instead, it is made up of the representatives for the country. "The Commons' role is to moderate, influence and challenge government."

The personal qualities needed of a Speaker were stressed by Sir George Young - impartiality; authority; patience; humour; aquaintance with the rules; a basis of support from across the House; and leadership were mentioned.

Anne Widdecombe said "I'm pretty unique", pointing out that, amongst other unique qualities, she was only asking for interim authority. She will retire from Parliament at the General Election. As with other candidates she stressed the dual task of restoring the reputation of the House and shifting the balance from the Executive to Parliament.

John Bercow, the bookies favourite, said there were three challenges

1 to restore trust in politics

2 to put Parliament first

3 to be an ambassador - He, or she, must be "a robust advocate of democratic accountability - and a listener to the legitimate concerns of the public"

The final four, and this was an accident of chance, were more tradionally minded. Both Sir Alan Haselhurst and Sir Michael Lord have long experience in the Speakers Chair - currently the number 2 and 3 in the hierarchy. Sir Patrick Cormack is a House institution himself - being known for his knowledge of Commons history. Margaret Beckett has great ministerial experience and was a former Leader of the House. All acknowledged that changes were necessary but didn't display the passion for reform of some of the earlier speaking candidates.

It was well worth going - and I hope you'll be able to watch on Sunday. The Hansard Society allowed us to see both quality and hope for the future.

A BBC report with highlights is available now at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8099946.stm