Just Defect Already

Back when the speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin was elected amid a betting scandal there were just eight MPs who were willing to take a principled stand and vote against him.

The rest either approved of the sleazy way he had been elected or weren't brave enough to take a stand. One of the eight was the dwarvish John Bercow, who back in 2000 was a coherent right wing Tory who had been surprisingly effective in his handling of parliamentary procedure to oppose the government, sometime in 2001 he began to drift to the left, initially in a kind of Portillo-esque way towards a socially liberal, fiscally conservative and remaining a eurosceptic. After a while he began to drift way further to left to the point where his only contribution to the Conservative Party was theatrical resignations. By 2005 he was a Conservative in name only and was an enthusiastic Blairite, who regarded even David Cameron as dangerously right wing.

Now in 2008 he has gone so far to the left that he is in George Galloway territory, believing that the corruption mired Speaker whom he voted against 8 years ago is now the victim of a class based conspiracy:

"What a pleasure it is to see you in the Chair, Mr. Speaker, and to know that we have as our Speaker somebody who is simply not prepared to be pushed around, either by snobs or by bullies."

Also in those eight short years he has gone from being one of just eight MPs who were willing to
oppose the sleaze of the political class to being one of just 5 Tory MPs who are supporting the government's pledge to abandon the commitment that all three major parties made in their manifestos to hold a referendum on the European Constitution. Isn't it time the pock marked midget just defected to Labour or the Socialist Workers Party?