Politics

27 June 2009

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

There was no mistaking the sadistic zeal with which Labour MPs bounded into the lobbies to vote for John Bercow on Monday. The whole election had been an unexpected gift to them: a chance to foist on David Cameron a Speaker who is loathed by the Conservative party. When Mr Bercow promised to serve ‘no more than nine years’, the scale of the prize became clearer still: a trick played upon the Tories that could last until the summer of 2018. It was scarcely plausible that Margaret Beckett would occupy the post for so long. From that moment, the race was Bercow’s.

History has been made, insofar as Mr Bercow is perhaps the first Speaker ever to be chosen on account of his unpopularity and lack of authority. And this is, in itself, a deeply revealing insight into the late-stage Labour game plan. A retreating army still has plenty of options, if it is imaginative enough. There are bridges to be burned, landmines to be laid, earth to be scorched. And Speaker Bercow is merely the most visible of the many shackles with which Labour hopes to burden a Tory government.

Such acts of political sabotage are about the only pleasure left to Labour. Almost no one shares Gordon Brown’s delusion that he can win the next election. One former Cabinet member recently told me he thinks it will be 2025 before Labour is back. Others wonder, in more maudlin moments, if Labour might follow the old Liberal party to the political graveyard. But in the next ten months, long-term decisions can be made and the levers of power pulled in order to keep a Labour agenda running long after a Tory government is installed.

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Carly

June 25th, 2009 6:16pm Report this comment

Never mind Speaker Bercow, it's the top civil servants and mandarins that will be the real problem. They should start with an immediate purge starting with Gus O'Donnell.

Ken

June 26th, 2009 10:15am Report this comment

Well the Conservatives could announce a joint ministerial mission for Day One in Office: the immediate repeal of all 5000 marxist-tainted laws passed by the socialists since 1997; call it "Conservative Clean Slate".

Then put all civil servants on notice that they will be required to resit Civil Service exams, sign new contracts with the incoming administration and compete in the open market for the 30% of posts left once the axe falls on the over-abundant non-jobs.

That should alert the civil service to sit on its hands whenever BrownGang orders bridge-burning and constituional fiddling.

JW

June 26th, 2009 2:47pm Report this comment

"Traditionally no party runs a candidate against the speaker" - I used to live in Selwyn Lloyd's constituency when he was speaker - both liberals (as they were then) asnd labour would routinely put up candidates, both eould routinely lose their deposits

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