Vote for Speaker

[PortBlacksandResident]

Rather enjoying this. Widders prob about to go (although i rather like her). John Bercow now surely.

I love annioe w, she would be such entertainment as a speaker.

live feed:
BBC Parliament:www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlive/bbc_parliament/
BBC News: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7459669.stm

It's between hated-by-the-Tories Tory John Bercow or establishment figure Sir George Samuel Knatchbull Young, 6th Baronet.

Not terribly inspiring really.

Young should win because Bercow is so divisive. Shame about Widdie.

Widders just said she'd prefer Young too.

Bercow it is

so 30 years of him potentially. Dreadful.

Bercow btw wants to increase MPs salaries to £100k. He also got his personal tax return done at our expense.

It is particularly shameful because Labour have done this to get one over on the Tories, who hate him. Which might be fair enough, but Parliament is in a mess and this really wasn't the time.

Very few of them care about reform, they, like Bercow, are just in it for the money.

I think it's unfair to blame Bercow for the tax return. It is small beer compared to many (and why has Cameron got off so lightly for remortgaging his "second home" in order to pay out a lump sum on his first home incidentally?)

He did pledge reform, where George Young, as the chair of the standards committee oversaw the whole mess. There is no way an establishment candidate could begin to restore confidence in parliament.

Tax return preparation isn't even a tax deductible expense. It's ludicrous to claim it on your expenses.

The fact that he has no support from his own party and is regarded as an arse-licking sychophant who joined the Labour government in 2007 doesn't do much to inspire conference that he's there for any reason other than to prop up this rotting corpse of a Labour government.

Agreed that Young was a bad choice as well.

no, but the claim should have been rejected. Accountants for business accounts are an allowable expense, so you can see how someone might try to claim for personal ones. Or I can anyway.

It doesn't make him just "in it for the money"

It wouldn't be my preferred choice, but 100k salary and no expenses wouldn't be a bad way to go. My preferred choice though would be national average wage, digs and 50% of train fares paid....

Bercow is also a flipper of his second home (twice). Though like all the others he's 'done nothing wrong' (just paying back the money to the Inland Revemue as an act of charity, you understand).

So just the man to make a fresh start.

I had to laugh when I heard one of the MPs on the radio saying that they were a very sophisticated electorate in the HoC...

oh I didn't see that. I don't have any patience with the CGT avoiders.

still think he was the better choice of the two though. maybe one of the others would have been better