 Yikes... (Posted January 9, 2019) Tweet Speaker John Bercow, since this site was launched, has been and remains its top-ranked parliamentarian. Throughout his time in the chair, he has managed proceedings in the House of Commons with transparency, dedication, and care in spite of resistance from and subversion by his critics. It will be a great loss to observers of political institutions and institutional management when Bercow stands down as Speaker. Though we hope that day does not arrive until years from now, it is looking more likely, month by month, that he will announce his resignation sooner rather than later. We have noticed over the last several months that he has, in championing the rights of backbenchers, been very forgiving of backbenchers' failure to abide by the finer points of parliamentary decorum. It seems as though members, including very senior, very experienced members, are addressing questions and imperatives across the chamber directly to other members rather than through the Speaker. It also seems the chamber is often full at the start of ministerial statements but empty by the end. Bercow's indulgence of backbenchers may have gone a step too far today when he allowed MP's to vote on an amendment to the customarily unamendable Business of the House motion. The amendment itself may have been in line with the spirit of the original motion, as amended, that would have compelled the government to table a new motion by now had the draft EU withdrawal agreement been voted down on Dec 11, but having secured the original will of the House in this case, the Speaker may have stripped the bolts of the ordinarily reliable parliamentary machine. The machine will almost certainly run like it normally does tomorrow, the next day, and the next day after that. For that very reason, though, observers, including the Speaker himself one day, may look back at the decision to allow a vote on the amendment with regret, concluding that the House could have handled the Brexit process, even in this precarious state of affairs, without that extraordinary intervention. Bercow is often at his best when dissatisfied (perhaps even disgruntled) MP's challenge him with points of order about the rationale for his rulings or his competence to chair proceedings. He has survived the Carol Mills appointment backlash in 2014, the secret ballot plot of 2015, a no-confidence motion signed by a handful of usual suspects including James Duddridge and Andrew Bridgen in 2017 following his refusal to extend President Donald Trump an invitation to address parliament, and claims that his 9-year tenure commitment required his resignation in June of 2018. On this occasion, however, a challenge to his speakership may actually have merit. Having sustained himself in the chair as a careful proceduralist, he may have, on this occasion, alienated venerable parliamentarians on both sides of the House and, in so doing, given others who harbor grudges against him an arrow that has been feathered with one of his own plumes. | |
Points of Order (part 1), Jan 9, 2019. Points of Order (part 2), Jan 9, 2019. Points of Order (part 3), Jan 9, 2019. | |