John Bercow

Brexit Unfolded: How No One Got What They Want (And Why They Were Never Going To)

by Chris Grey  · 22 Jun 2021  · 334pp  · 91,722 words

the debate and announcing that the vote would be deferred to an unspecified date. It was described by the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow – who was to play a significant role in the months to come – as ‘deeply discourteous’ to MPs. In the meantime, the government committed to go

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feebleness was, by definition, impossible to know. The phrase ‘Bercow’s bombshell’ joined the list of Brexit jargon. It referred to the ruling by Speaker John Bercow that MPs couldn’t be asked to vote twice on the same proposition, which therefore precluded a third meaningful vote. This was widely reported as

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particular, was pulling the country ever further from the norms of liberal democracy and the rule of law. The other immediate question was whether Speaker John Bercow would allow a fresh meaningful vote on Johnson’s deal to be held on Monday, as Rees-Mogg had stated. Or would this, as had

Why We Get the Wrong Politicians

by Isabel Hardman  · 14 Jun 2018  · 333pp  · 99,545 words

, that his mother and sister had also died of cancer. The collision between question and behaviour elsewhere in the Chamber couldn’t have been worse. John Bercow, the Speaker of the House, frequently upbraids MPs for their behaviour, claiming that the public despises PMQs for its childishness. There is evidence that bears

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has gone wrong in order to avoid being humiliated by a UQ, or appearing reluctant to face scrutiny. This system fell by the wayside until John Bercow became Speaker, whereupon he seized on the opportunity to make the government as uncomfortable as possible by granting hundreds of urgent questions. He has helped

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a ‘lame duck’, unable to deliver anything particularly radical. There are other problems besides the legislative deadlock that critics of the American system cite. Speaker John Bercow is fervently in favour of strengthening Parliament, but very cool on the idea of a full separation of powers. When I asked him about this

Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors: 50 Places That Changed British Politics

by Matt Chorley  · 8 Feb 2024  · 254pp  · 75,897 words

pub quiz trivia for you) while the subaquatic Manor of Northstead was briefly the responsibility of Cameron, Mandelson, Adams, Eden and Kilroy-Silk, along with John Bercow, David Miliband, Martin McGuinness, Matthew Parris and Enoch Powell. Johnson actually has the rare distinction of having held both offices after resigning twice. The first

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proper run for the Commons in 2010. He chose, of the 650 seats available, to stand in Buckingham, notable because the sitting MP there was John Bercow, the former Tory MP who had been Commons Speaker since June 2009. By convention the main parties did not stand against the independent Speaker, so

Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals

by Oliver Bullough  · 10 Mar 2022  · 257pp  · 80,698 words

are also grateful to the Chairperson of the Foundation, Lada Firtash, who put all her energy and dedication in the implementation of this project,’ said John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, according to a curiously ungrammatical Group DF statement. ‘The fact that we are hosted at the British Parliament, and

Drugs 2.0: The Web Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High

by Mike Power  · 1 May 2013  · 378pp  · 94,468 words

found in a nearby canal on 14 March.9 After the government ban was announced in late March that year, Sally Bercow, the wife of John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons, tweeted, ‘Mexxy is a legal high that is, er, no longer legal. And now we’ve all heard of

No Such Thing as Society

by Andy McSmith  · 19 Nov 2010  · 613pp  · 151,140 words

The committee chairman was the Conservative MP for Billericay, Harvey Proctor, and the committee secretary in 1981–3 was a student activist from north London, John Bercow, who many years later became Speaker of the House of Commons. (Sir Ronald Bell, that articulate voice of white middle-class rectitude, was no longer

Failed State: The Sunday Times Bestselling Investigation Into Why Britain Is Struggling

by Sam Freedman  · 10 Jul 2024  · 368pp  · 101,133 words

the end of a bitter war with MPs, who were determined to constrain a minority government. This was, in part, a reaction to the Speaker, John Bercow, engaging in his own constitutional innovations, against the wishes of his clerks, which enabled rebel MPs to briefly seize control of parliamentary business from the

Politics on the Edge: The Instant #1 Sunday Times Bestseller From the Host of Hit Podcast the Rest Is Politics

by Rory Stewart  · 13 Sep 2023  · 534pp  · 157,700 words

gum. Across the aisle: there seemed to be more women on the Labour benches, more young people. The first Prime Minister’s Questions began with John Bercow, the Speaker – a very small, broad-shouldered man, with a pale face and a mop of white hair – shouting ‘Order’ in the parade voice of

How to Be a Liberal: The Story of Liberalism and the Fight for Its Life

by Ian Dunt  · 15 Oct 2020

28th August 2019, with just two months to go until the Article 50 deadline, the prime minister initiated a prorogation. The Speaker of the Commons, John Bercow, branded the move a ‘constitutional outrage,’ but he was powerless to stop it. In the early hours of 10th September, for the first time in

Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?

by David G. Blanchflower  · 12 Apr 2021  · 566pp  · 160,453 words

May’s deal through Parliament, less than two weeks before the UK was meant to leave the EU at the end of March 2019, Speaker John Bercow announced that he would not allow a third vote on the withdrawal agreement without substantial changes. Bercow’s decision was based on an official parliamentary

The Life and Loves of a He Devil: A Memoir

by Graham Norton  · 22 Oct 2014  · 225pp  · 78,025 words

Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics

by Peter Geoghegan  · 2 Jan 2020  · 388pp  · 111,099 words

The Hidden History of Burma

by Thant Myint-U

Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem

by Tim Shipman  · 30 Nov 2017  · 721pp  · 238,678 words