It’s time for John Bercow to hang up his gown

There was a time when both MPs and viewers of Prime Minister’s Question Time would welcome an interjection from the Commons Speaker. Indeed, there was a time when the Speaker commanded the respect not just of the entire House but the whole nation. But, after almost six years of John Bercow in the chair, that feels like the long and distant past.

In the good old days, when Betty Boothroyd was Speaker, MPs on all sides would fall silent at the first inkling that she was about to rise to her feet. First she would daintily withdraw her black-stockinged feet from the green leather stool in front of her. Then she would draw herself up to stand just as the long, deep, almost gutteral sound of the first syllable of ‘Orrrrrrrrrrr-der’ would reverberate around the chamber. At this, hundreds of loud, boorish, shouting men would quiver back into their own seats, giggling nervously as if the headmistress had just walked in on them playing a game of ‘you show me yours’. Once