Wednesday 24 June 2009

Reaction of the speaker shows a dark side

So according to Steven Richards the Tory benches attitude to the new speaker shows their dark side.

Writing in the Independent this morning

Anyone watching the anger on the faces of Tory MPs when the result was announced might assume that Bercow was a raving leftie. In fact he has made a stand on a number of limited issues including his support for gay adoption and for the abolition of the anti-gay Section 28. He lost his job on the front bench under Michael Howard partly for arguing that the budget for international development should be maintained rather than cut. Bercow's reward for being genuinely progressive on a limited number of issues was the loathing disdain of virtually the entire parliamentary Conservative party.


A line also taken by the Time's Danny Finkelstein who says that

If Conservative MPs are truly saying that Bercow's fairly low level dissent is utterly beyond the pale, that is pretty unattractive. It suggests a narrow, cliquey insistance upon uniformity.

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