The idea of UKIP MEP Nigel Farage standing against the Speaker, John Bercow, in Buckingham at the next General Election, is on a par with David Davis resigning to fight a by-election against himself, i.e. it will almost certainly be a political damp squib. It has made me think though as to what I'd do if I lived in Bercow's constituency. (No, not vote for Farage!)
Convention has it that the main political parties don't contest the seat against the candidate known as 'Mr Speaker seeking re-election'. Not that it would make much difference in Buckingham where Bercow has an 18,000 majority. Obviously if I lived there I would, in normal circumstances, vote for the Labour candidate. But if there isn't a Labour candidate next time round, what to do? Sit on your hands on the grounds that you can't vote for someone who was until very recently a Tory? But I don't think I could ever not vote.... Or vote for Bercow on the grounds that he's a decent chap and I supported him for Speaker and want to endorse him continuing in that role? But then if I'd been a Labour activist in Buckingham, I'd have been campaigning against him for years... Then again, a vote for Bercow would be a vote against Farage, which is certainly worth getting out of bed for. I think that would probably seal the deal.
7 comments:
Bercow should resign and call a by-election - that way he'd get all the support of CCHQ, Lib Dems AND Labour to squash Farage like the ugly little toad he is...
I'd love to see Farage in the HoC. He would expose the inadequacies and lack of contrast between the 3 main parties. No wonder you'd rather vote for a Tory. You could put a fag paper(if they were allowed in totalitarian Britain) between Cameron/Brown and Clegg. Comrade Beeb will have to work overtime to discredit him.
Since Bercow has proved to be yet another guardian of the Trough, good riddance.
You see, Kerry, MPs yet again voted for a speaker who would be good for themselves instead of the people you are meant to be the representatives of.
Hello Kerry. Long time no tweet. I think that if Nigel Farage works out a good battle plan, the Farage v Bercow match could have an interesting result. After all,who would have believed that the 'man in a white suit', Martin Bell, would have beaten Neil Hamilton in Knutsford in 1997?
Farage has just been on Newsnight.
Bercow "wasn't available".
Says it all really.
While I'm not a fan of Farage, I think its good he is running against Bercow, the tradition of the main parties not standing against the speaker is barmy.
Not sure where this idea that there is a 'tradition' that the main parties don't stand against the speaker. It started in the 1990s, before then I'm pretty sure Labour used to stand against 'tory' speakers.
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