John Bercow

My lack of schadenfreude worries me

2 April 2022 9:00 am

Something has been bothering me of late, and that is my total lack of schadenfreude. The malicious pleasure at someone’s…

Portrait of the week: Zelensky channels Churchill, Russia blocks BBC and Bercow banned from parliament

12 March 2022 9:00 am

Home President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressed a packed House of Commons by video, echoing Winston Churchill by declaring that…

Would you pay £80 for a video from John Bercow?

12 June 2021 9:00 am

There is much to be said for meritocracy, and Adrian Wooldridge, in his new book, The Aristocracy of Talent, says…

Will Lindsay get his chariot back?

31 March 2021 1:00 am

As Speaker, John Bercow could never be accused of underselling his position. During his tenure the diminutive parliamentarian attracted criticism…

Letters: How to squash a Speaker

9 November 2019 9:00 am

No special protection Sir: Rod Liddle’s joke that the election might be held on a date when Muslims cannot vote,…

Portrait of the week: The Speaker resigns, BA pilots strike and Mugabe dies

14 September 2019 9:00 am

Home A bill sponsored by Hilary Benn and supported by Alistair Burt and other dissident Tories was passed — becoming…

How John Bercow saved me from Short Man Syndrome

14 September 2019 9:00 am

I think my colleagues on the pro-Brexit side of the aisle have been a little unkind in their response to…

The six strangest moments from Parliament’s prorogation protest

10 September 2019 8:25 pm

Early this morning at around 2am, the Commons witnessed some of the most extraordinary behaviour seen in the Chamber in living memory,…

Who will replace John Bercow as Speaker?

10 September 2019 4:35 pm

Now that John Bercow has announced his imminent departure, an inevitable political bun fight will surely follow. The outgoing Speaker…

John Bercow’s nauseating farewell

10 September 2019 3:37 am

I didn’t think the smug triumphalism of the Remainer Alliance could get any more nauseating, but this afternoon it did.…

There’s nothing wrong with Jacob Rees-Mogg lying down in the Commons

7 September 2019 9:00 am

If you are a journalist covering politics this year, every moment is a bad moment to take a holiday. I…

Speaker-speak: the maddening rhetoric of John Bercow

23 March 2019 9:00 am

Much has recently been written about the incumbent Commons Speaker, from (vigorously denied) allegations of bullying to (less vigorously denied)…

Credit: Photo by Alastair Grant/ WPA Pool /Getty Images

Why New York loves John Bercow

2 February 2019 9:00 am

‘The British political class has offered to the world an astounding spectacle of mendacious, intellectually limited hustlers.’ This is a…

What lies behind John Bercow’s use of the word ‘colleagues’?

19 January 2019 9:00 am

The parliamentary press gallery has in the past given a pair of silver shoe buckles to the Speaker as a…

Portrait of the week: a government defeat, the harassment of Anna Soubry and Trump’s wall crisis

12 January 2019 9:00 am

Home The government drifted towards a vote by the Commons, which it had cancelled in December, on its withdrawal agreement…

Is ‘woman’ now an offensive word?

26 May 2018 9:00 am

I do not know whether the Speaker of the House of Commons called the present Leader of the House a…

What makes a cad (and why this was such a good year for them)

12 December 2015 9:00 am

From Lord Sewel to – let’s not be sexist – Sally Bercow, there’s life in the old rogue yet

It’s not just the Russians – there is no morality in top-level sport

14 November 2015 9:00 am

Why do transgendered people need separate toilets? I thought, according to the prevalent orthodoxy, that the new gender they had…

Portrait of the week

23 May 2015 9:00 am

Home The annual rate of inflation turned negative in April, for the first time since 1960, with deflation of 0.1…

Portrait of the week

30 August 2014 9:00 am

Home Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said that Britons who went to Syria or Iraq to fight could be stripped…

If John Bercow were two-and-a-half inches taller, he'd never have been such a big success

12 July 2014 9:00 am

Unlike 99 per cent of my colleagues, I was quite touched by John Bercow’s comment about how fed up he…

John Bercow must rein it in — Parliament can't afford to depose two Speakers in a row

16 November 2013 9:00 am

John Bercow could go down as a great reforming Speaker of the House of Commons. It’s thanks to him, in…