John Bercow House of Commons speaker, part four

Op-Ed: In this final part of our look back at the role of speaker of the House of Commons in the 21st Century we ask John Bercow, what went wrong?

There was a time when Bercow managed to provide some fun and humour into House of Common's debate while keeping good order and basically doing his job.

Those days are gone.

Some will say they noticed a remarkable downward trend following Jeremy Corbyn becoming the elected Labour party leader, the party that is the official opposition party in the House of Commons.

From day one when Corbyn got to his feet, announced by the speaker as Mr Jeremy Corbyn, you could hear that hint of distaste in his voice.

And sadly most people who tune into debates which involve Mr Corbyn will have noticed bullyboy tactics from the Tory benches and the speaker in an apparent daze of deafness.

After PMQS Wednesday February 24 reached a new low many people were moved to write in to the speaker's office and complain.

They received a pretty bog-standard reply from a member of the speaker's secretarial and admin team that was viewed as a brush-off.

The personal attack on Mr Corbyn by Cameron who, in response to a Labour backbench jibe, said  "Ask my mother? I think I know what my mother would say."I think she would look across the despatch box and she would say 'Put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem'" may have appealed to Tory backbenchers but looked silly, petulant and childish to the rest of us.

Social media responded angrily but Mr Corbyn with a wry smile joked to Sky News Thursday about doing his tie up for the Prime Minister.

But as Mr Corbyn is almost 30-years older than Mr Cameron it was contemptible

Tory whippersnappers may have loved Cameron's bite back but in the end he was left with egg on his face.

But where was Mr Bercow in all of this?

Hardly doing his job?

According to Parliament UK "The salary of the Speaker is £150,236 (this figure comprises of MP's salary of £74,000 and the additional salary for the Speaker of £76,236)."

It is about time he earned that money.

In late March as parliament was set to break ahead of the May General election a Tory plot to oust Bercow was launched by William Hague. It ended up as a filibuster that prevented the House debating a "Mayfair Tax loophole."

Labour ministers technically ran to the aid of Bercow but was he part of the plot we wonder? If not did that plot leave him fearing his place in the Commons was under attack?

Whatever the reason Bercow is helping Cameron's Bullingdon Boys turn the Commons into comedy theatre.

Perhaps he likes his cosy position and will do anything to prevent real political change?

This is a four part mini series;
House of Commons speaker, part one
When John Bercow did his job, part two
Expenses scandal hits the speaker, part three

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