Was Bercowâ€™s move leftwards just a ploy?

Posted: Tue 23 Jun 2009 11 16 am

How else could he have got Labour to back his bid?

Last night, in the aftermath of the commons election, the Indy writer, Steve Richards, talked in a TV interview about a private conversation that heâ€™d had with Bercow just after the 2005 general election when the Buckingham MP revealed that his career objective was to become speaker.

This has set me thinking. For how could a Tory, then in his early 40s, harbour such a dream when everything would seem to be against him? He was too young and in the wrong party.

At the time Labour look set for a fourth victory and Bercow must have realised that the only way of pulling this off would be by getting Labour support.

So was his apparent move across the political spectrum and public opposition to Cameron part of a well-thought out plan that led to last nighâ€™t extraordinary victory? Basically has he managed to con both Labour and Tory MPs?

Was it Bercow who worked out that the only way of getting the job was by persuading Labour colleagues his candidature would be a brilliant way of screwing the Tories while at the same time dealing with the increasingly difficult question of the time being ripe for a speaker from his party?

And the joy for Bercow now is that nobody will ever know. For heâ€™s in a job where being non-partisan is an essential requirement.

The timing seems to be right - for while Bercow was in Michael Howardâ€™s shadow cabinet in 2004 he wrote to Tony Blair praising the then PMâ€™s â€œoutstanding statesmanship.â€ Looking back that was a strange thing to do - yet it all fits with my theory as does his public comments about Cameronâ€™s privileged background.

If Iâ€™m right then, surely, heâ€™s the idea man for the job - anybody who could pull off such a coup and fool so many people has extraordinary political gifts. No wonder he liked Blair!

http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/06/23/was-bercows-move-leftwards-just-a-ploy/

Posted: Tue 23 Jun 2009 5 14 pm

Bearing in mind that Bercow has gone on a "political journey" from somewhere right of the present BNP to somewhere a bit too "progressive" for most of the Conservative Party, I think this shows how much influence a good wife can have on a chap. Ask Mrs Bear! Very Happy

And, speaking of the BNP, I wonder why Mr Squeaker is allowed a "political journey", but Nick Griffin is not? His views on immigrants have also moved, over the same period, towards what is called "the left", even if they have not yet reached what is called "the centre ground". It is a fact that the much maligned BNP's official position on immigration and assisted repatriation is by no means as "extreme" as Bercow's former view expressed from within the mainstream Conservative Party.

Yet today Mr Bercow is Mr Speaker, while Mr Griffin remains Mr Unspeakable.

Strange old world, innit? Rolling Eyes

Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 2977 Location: North of Watford

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Rolling Eyes

Spartacus

Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 2902

Bestbear wrote:

And, speaking of the BNP, I wonder why Mr Squeaker is allowed a "political journey", but Nick Griffin is not?

Mr. Griffin is more than welcome to a political journey, the perfect piece of evidence for such a journey would be for him to leave his current racist party - until he does so, the natural position is to believe him to be still a racist.

Posted: Wed 24 Jun 2009 8 47 am

tjwmason wrote:

Bestbear wrote:

And, speaking of the BNP, I wonder why Mr Squeaker is allowed a "political journey", but Nick Griffin is not?

Mr. Griffin is more than welcome to a political journey, the perfect piece of evidence for such a journey would be for him to leave his current racist party - until he does so, the natural position is to believe him to be still a racist.

the kind of 'political journey' i'd like to see him take is into the sea with bricks in his pockets!

though i accept that your version would be damn sight more effective at romoving the 'attractiveness' of the BNP to the politically disolutioned...

Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 2977 Location: North of Watford

Hear, hear!

Spartacus