NotoriousREV wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:50 pm
Beany wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:31 pm
GG. wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 6:11 pm
To be fair, I think they're all taking it very seriously, its just just that they're fundamentally opposed to one another and a system that has a single individual deciding on motions and which amendments to be put forward on the basis that they'll just be a good boy or girl and not be biased having spent their career up to press in an adversarial political organ of the body politic, is to be frank, crap.
Interestingly if you think back, Bercow's appointment was only waived through by Labour because they knew he was hated by the conservatives more than any member of their own party that they could nominate.
OK, so despite having three years to pull a plan together, it's all Bercows fault because some tinfoil hat madness suggests he's biased for pointing out a 175 year old, established convention in house rules....?
.....right.....
Actually, it's a 415 year old law. It's funny that people tend to forget that the Speaker's job is to act for Parliament, not the Government. It's also funny that those that claim to want Parliamentary Sovereignty are the ones that complain the loudest when it's actually used.
Lolz to both of you. Lawyering 101, what we’re talking about here is parliamentary procedure which is based on convention and precedent evolved over time. This is not a point of law.
If you’re interested in the distinction, law remains the same no matter how many times it is not followed or broken. Convention is a different beast entirely and as soon as it is habitually not followed it ceases to become convention.
In any event, people are complaining about Bercow because of this precise point - there was an instance in January with regards to an amendment to a motion which, on grounds of convention and precedent, he should not have allowed, but he did stating haughtily ‘I am not here to cite convention and nor am I bound by it’ or words to that effect.
In other words he’s debasing the role of speaker by politicising it and inconsistently at that.