Consensus on Sunday Politics seems to be Harriet Harman could succeed Bercow as next Speaker
How could she? She is a former party leader. No former party leader has ever become Speaker because he/she would be associated with a party when the Speaker is supposed to be impartial?
Without looking up lists of previous speakers I would guess such an appointment would be a break from convention, but of course constitutional conventions evolve over time. That said, someone who was so senior and thus so obviously partisan would suggest to me the convention it not be such a person should be maintained.
Generally it's been moving away from those who held high posts. Selwyn Lloyd was the last really senior cabinet minister to become Speaker in 1971 having been Chancellor and Foreign Secretary and he proved a highly controversial appointment. George Thomas had briefly been in Cabinet years before, Wetherill not even that high. None of the last three Speakers have held any government role even if Bercow spent three undistinguished years in the Shadow Cabinet.
Appointing a former party leader - even an acting leader (yes, yes I know Labour does not technically have acting leaders) would be a drastic backward step. I do not think it would be well received even if Harman were a suitable and well-qualified candidate which she certainly isn't.
Many UK deaths are labelled 'suicide' yet US intelligence agencies consider them 'suspicious'
It's worth bearing in mind that US intelligence agencies are only giving an opinion, and that the actual investigations have been carried out by British police, security services, and coroners.
There seems to be this viewpoint going around that the UK has not investigated these 14 deaths, that's simply untrue, investigations have been extensive. UK authorities are only going to point the finger when they are certain that they have followed up all leads and examined all possibilites, and eliminated other potential causes of death. Doing otherwise would be to turn such deaths into a political tool, which is the sort of behaviour the Russian government engages in.
The book A Very Expensive Poison by Luke Harding is well worth reading for anyone who wonders how willing the UK is to thoroughly investigate such crimes. UK authorities may never bring the culprits to justice, but they sure as hell have tried to do so.
Douglas Ross MP really does like a quiet life doesn't he?
I feel sorry for the person in charge of his social media and email accounts.
Murdo 'Queen's 11' Fraser will be giving his party colleague a hearty shake of the hand (Masonic or otherwise) on their next meeting.
He was repeatedly shouting 'Red card' that was just so weird, he looked like me whenever anyone plays Liverpool and commits a tackle against a Liverpool player.
The boy Edouard done well, to use the parlance.
All the goals in this match have been corkers.
Has been a great game so far, my live stream just conked out as well
Aye, it's been decent. A draw wouldn't be an unfair result.
Douglas Ross MP really does like a quiet life doesn't he?
I feel sorry for the person in charge of his social media and email accounts.
Murdo 'Queen's 11' Fraser will be giving his party colleague a hearty shake of the hand (Masonic or otherwise) on their next meeting.
He was repeatedly shouting 'Red card' that was just so weird, he looked like me whenever anyone plays Liverpool and commits a tackle against a Liverpool player.
The boy Edouard done well, to use the parlance.
All the goals in this match have been corkers.
Has been a great game so far, my live stream just conked out as well
Aye, it's been decent. A draw wouldn't be an unfair result.
Consensus on Sunday Politics seems to be Harriet Harman could succeed Bercow as next Speaker
How could she? She is a former party leader. No former party leader has ever become Speaker because he/she would be associated with a party when the Speaker is supposed to be impartial?
Without looking up lists of previous speakers I would guess such an appointment would be a break from convention, but of course constitutional conventions evolve over time. That said, someone who was so senior and thus so obviously partisan would suggest to me the convention it not be such a person should be maintained.
Generally it's been moving away from those who held high posts. Selwyn Lloyd was the last really senior cabinet minister to become Speaker in 1971 having been Chancellor and Foreign Secretary and he proved a highly controversial appointment. George Thomas had briefly been in Cabinet years before, Wetherill not even that high. None of the last three Speakers have held any government role even if Bercow spent three undistinguished years in the Shadow Cabinet.
Appointing a former party leader - even an acting leader (yes, yes I know Labour does not technically have acting leaders) would be a drastic backward step. I do not think it would be well received even if Harman were a suitable and well-qualified candidate which she certainly isn't.
1971 eh? I see that there was a Select Committee on Procedure in 1971-72 which among other things recommended that. wherever possible, the Speaker should retire in the middle of a session, I wonder if there were other convention changes/clarifications which arose from that period, which might have included that senior cabinet members should generally not fill the position.
Consensus on Sunday Politics seems to be Harriet Harman could succeed Bercow as next Speaker
How could she? She is a former party leader. No former party leader has ever become Speaker because he/she would be associated with a party when the Speaker is supposed to be impartial?
Without looking up lists of previous speakers I would guess such an appointment would be a break from convention, but of course constitutional conventions evolve over time. That said, someone who was so senior and thus so obviously partisan would suggest to me the convention it not be such a person should be maintained.
Generally it's been moving away from those who held high posts. Selwyn Lloyd was the last really senior cabinet minister to become Speaker in 1971 having been Chancellor and Foreign Secretary and he proved a highly controversial appointment. George Thomas had briefly been in Cabinet years before, Wetherill not even that high. None of the last three Speakers have held any government role even if Bercow spent three undistinguished years in the Shadow Cabinet.
Appointing a former party leader - even an acting leader (yes, yes I know Labour does not technically have acting leaders) would be a drastic backward step. I do not think it would be well received even if Harman were a suitable and well-qualified candidate which she certainly isn't.
1971 eh? I see that there was a Select Committee on Procedure in 1971-72 which among other things recommended that. wherever possible, the Speaker should retire in the middle of a session, I wonder if there were other convention changes/clarifications which arose from that period, which might have included that senior cabinet members should generally not fill the position.
I think there was a move towards the Commons electing a Speaker rather than the Government and Opposition stitching it up through the 'usual channels.' I don't know much beyond that but I seem to remember Wetherill was made Speaker over Thatcher's objections.
Consensus on Sunday Politics seems to be Harriet Harman could succeed Bercow as next Speaker
How could she? She is a former party leader. No former party leader has ever become Speaker because he/she would be associated with a party when the Speaker is supposed to be impartial?
Without looking up lists of previous speakers I would guess such an appointment would be a break from convention, but of course constitutional conventions evolve over time. That said, someone who was so senior and thus so obviously partisan would suggest to me the convention it not be such a person should be maintained.
Generally it's been moving away from those who held high posts. Selwyn Lloyd was the last really senior cabinet minister to become Speaker in 1971 having been Chancellor and Foreign Secretary and he proved a highly controversial appointment. George Thomas had briefly been in Cabinet years before, Wetherill not even that high. None of the last three Speakers have held any government role even if Bercow spent three undistinguished years in the Shadow Cabinet.
Appointing a former part leader - even an acting leader (yes, yes I know Labour does not technically have acting leaders) would be a drastic backward step. I do not think it would be well received even if Harman were a suitable and well-qualified candidate which she certainly isn't.
I think if it needs to be relatively non-partisan, Peter Bottomley might be a possibility. He's campaigned for years for justice for leaseholders. He had a brief ministerial career but it was 30-40 years ago.
Or to repeat the Bercow tradition, i.e. the speaker technically belongs to one main party but has as much/more respect from the other party, could Frank Field could fit the bill?
Some look too partisan/tribal or are clearly meant as jokes. IMO the election of Wiggin or Barron would make the HoC a laughing stock.
That's news? That accusation, perhaps not so directly put, has been making the rounds since well before the referendum. The key would be what he means by 'some'. Half of leavers? A quarter?
Edit
Mr Cable said despite previously thinking Brexit must go ahead following the 2016 vote, he changed his mind when he saw “the evidence that Brexit had overwhelmingly been the choice of the older generation”
Too many were driven by a nostalgia for a world where passports were blue, faces were white, and the map was coloured imperial pink,” he told Lib Dem delegates in Southport.
I see, Mr Cable. So what you are saying is that we need to introduce a voting system where old peoples' votes count less? After all, plenty of people who voted at a GE may be dead by the time of the next one, and certainly before any systemic changes made start having real effect.
But to be clear here, it would have been ok to go ahead with Brexit but
a) the wrong people voted for it, and
b) the motivations of those people were not ok, and he knows for a fact that they were racist.
Well, he'll find some enthusiastic backers of both of those views.
Interesting that the PoliticsHome summary in the tweet actually dials down what he claimed. He didn't say 'some' were nostalgic for such an era, he said 'too many'.
How many older Leave voters being racist is too many? Were the LD leavers the racist ones?
One thought that occurs to me is that if a Speaker is elected in the near future Kenneth Clarke would be presiding as Father of the House.
I would pay good money to watch that!
There are different procedures for election of a Speaker in the course of a Parliamentary session rather than at its beginning, so it may or may not be the case that it would be the Father of the House:
'If the retiring Speaker is present, he remains in the Chair until the House has come to a decision upon his successor, at which point he leaves the Chair and the Mace is placed under the Table; but if he has already ceased to be a member of the House...the election is conducted in the same manner as at the beginning of a session, with the Member of longest service in the Chair".
That would seem to read that Bercow would preside over his successor, unless he has already resigned from the Commons?
Who is this vince cable? Is he somebody important?
Oh you know, he did the thing, oh you know, it was on the telly, wait a minute, wait a minute...no, I've forgotten. Wasn't he in the film? Oh...no, it's gone, sorry.
Comments
Appointing a former party leader - even an acting leader (yes, yes I know Labour does not technically have acting leaders) would be a drastic backward step. I do not think it would be well received even if Harman were a suitable and well-qualified candidate which she certainly isn't.
Ah, my coat again...
There seems to be this viewpoint going around that the UK has not investigated these 14 deaths, that's simply untrue, investigations have been extensive. UK authorities are only going to point the finger when they are certain that they have followed up all leads and examined all possibilites, and eliminated other potential causes of death. Doing otherwise would be to turn such deaths into a political tool, which is the sort of behaviour the Russian government engages in.
The book A Very Expensive Poison by Luke Harding is well worth reading for anyone who wonders how willing the UK is to thoroughly investigate such crimes. UK authorities may never bring the culprits to justice, but they sure as hell have tried to do so.
Otoh..
https://twitter.com/politicshome/status/972829084693749761?s=21
Or to repeat the Bercow tradition, i.e. the speaker technically belongs to one main party but has as much/more respect from the other party, could Frank Field could fit the bill?
Some look too partisan/tribal or are clearly meant as jokes. IMO the election of Wiggin or Barron would make the HoC a laughing stock.
FFS Cable, get your sh*t together.
Edit
Mr Cable said despite previously thinking Brexit must go ahead following the 2016 vote, he changed his mind when he saw “the evidence that Brexit had overwhelmingly been the choice of the older generation”
Too many were driven by a nostalgia for a world where passports were blue, faces were white, and the map was coloured imperial pink,” he told Lib Dem delegates in Southport.
I see, Mr Cable. So what you are saying is that we need to introduce a voting system where old peoples' votes count less? After all, plenty of people who voted at a GE may be dead by the time of the next one, and certainly before any systemic changes made start having real effect.
But to be clear here, it would have been ok to go ahead with Brexit but
a) the wrong people voted for it, and
b) the motivations of those people were not ok, and he knows for a fact that they were racist.
Well, he'll find some enthusiastic backers of both of those views.
I would pay good money to watch that!
How many older Leave voters being racist is too many? Were the LD leavers the racist ones?
For my fellow geeks, there's a Star Trek reference in it.
'If the retiring Speaker is present, he remains in the Chair until the House has come to a decision upon his successor, at which point he leaves the Chair and the Mace is placed under the Table; but if he has already ceased to be a member of the House...the election is conducted in the same manner as at the beginning of a session, with the Member of longest service in the Chair".
That would seem to read that Bercow would preside over his successor, unless he has already resigned from the Commons?
https://order-order.com/2018/03/11/mcdonnell-orders-labour-mps-stop-appearing-russia-today/
Perhaps jezza has more in common with trump than one would imagine.
NEW THREAD