Speaker Class

After a few years wandering in a blissful meadow of apathy and ignorance I’ve seen my political interests reawakened this year by events both positive and negative. The election of Barack Obama, the expenses scandal, the BNP’s European Parliament elections, Doncaster’s new elected Mare (not a spelling mistake) and of course current events in Iran.

With all this in mind, I watched with interest yesterday as the election of a new Speaker of the House of Commons was reported. It was interesting to see the different approach of all nine candidates as they made their individual speeches to the House. However, within them all was a reflected common theme and aim, that of the need for the Speaker (and the House) to be able to connect with the electorate itself.

The candidates made their points along these lines in various ways, Ann Widecombe choosing to do this by, what, even to me, seemed to be Commons suicide, bigging up her many television appearances. That misplaced call for empathy aside, these speeches did at least bring back, to me, some faith in the political process. Namely, that these politicians want clarity, brevity and a political process which better serves the people.

In fact it was all going very well until the final speech shown in the BBC report, that of Parmjit Dhanda when all the previous good work was undone. Not by MP Parmjit Dhanda whose speech and aims were welcome, but by the elected MP seated on the row behind him. Whilst Mr Dhanda spoke well on how the House needs to better appear to be in tune with the people, the man seated behind him was clearly, and in blatant view of the television cameras, asleep.

If they are sleeping on the job in the comparatively young and happening House of Commons then presumable the House of Lords these days resembles a nursing home in the hours after a particularly heavy Sunday lunch. In the aftermath of the furore of expenses there is much scrutiny of MPs at present, you would think the least they could do to keep the heat off would be to keep their eyes open.