Tories to give Bercow the chop

[Gromit]

John Bercow, the Conservative MP... ...might be overthrown if the Conservatives win the general election.

Senior Tories have told the Guardian they would remove him within a year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/14 /conservative-john-bercow-speaker-contest

Would, could and should that happen?

[jake-the-peg]

This is the problem with forcing Michael Martin out.

THey've opened Pandoras box and politicised the speaker. Now that blood has been tasted and the precident set they think they can do it again. Not because of any alledged abuses but simply because they don't like the result.

If they are sucessful in doing that we'll end up in a situation where every incoming government will simply sack the speaker and replace them with one of their choice.

Again though these threats come from anonymous sources. I'd be more worried if Cameron stood up and said it.

Not that I like Bercow, he always seems impressed with his own importance, even by MP standards.

[ludwig]

It's a strange situation. Nobody seems to like this bloke. By all accounts he's a pompous prat. The labour MPs seem to have voted him in just because the Tories hate him, but why they would prefer him over Margaret Beckett is a mystery.

Personally I wouldn't want either of them as they're both tainted by the expenses scandal.

To answer the question, should they be able to force him out - no.

[andy-hughes]

The notion of forcing Bercow out is just that - a notion.

By tradition, the Speaker is 'nodded through' after an election, and it's unlikely that any party will want the same sort of undignified scramble all over again.

Labout MP's are said to have voted him in with the expectation that he will annoy the hell out of the next PM, one David Cameron of that parish - but as with every newly elected individual in any post, we will have to see how he gets on.

He would struggle to make a bigger mess of it than Gorbals Mick, who'se handling of the expenses saga was not the reason he had to go - merely the final nail in the coffin of a badly handled tenure in office.

Where we go from here heaven only knows - let's hope it's upwards!