Next up for raffish Corbyn... a part in a Noel Coward play?
THE Nationalists’ new leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, came a little unstuck. He accused Theresa May of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ because she wanted G20 leaders to do something about terrorist financing, even while she is allegedly ‘sitting on’ some obscure report on terrorism.
Speaker Bercow had not been listening closely but he jolted to life at the H word, as though just connected to the mains electricity supply. Bzzzzt! After conferring with the Clerk, Bercow said he hoped Mr Blackford was not accusing Mrs May herself of hypocrisy, for that would be against Commons rules.
Mr Blackford nodded, happily confirming that he WAS calling the Prime Minister a staggering hypocrite. Bercow told Mr Blackford to get to his feet and withdraw the remark. Mr Blackford started trying to explain himself, which is not quite the same thing. The Speaker told him to ‘just withdraw’ it. Mr Blackford duly did, though in a ‘yes but’ manner. This saw him sharply cut off by Bercow.
Moments later I saw Mr Blackford scuttle round to the Speaker’s Chair to talk in animated fashion at Bercow, who made him wait a while and then, after an exchange of a few words, wafted him away, smirking as he did so. Ha! The Nats have learned the hard way what sort of a man Speaker Bercow is. For the past two years he has courted the SNP shamelessly, indulging their whinges, holding his little pinkie at a connoisseur’s angle when they raised tricky points of order, and practically declaring himself a devotee of rabbie Burns. He did that because he suspected the SNP might be useful to him should he face a challenge to his ghastly Speakership. Now that he is no longer under any sort of threat, they are less useful to him. And so they can get stuffed.
Mr Blackford had been making a short contribution while the Prime Minister reported to the House about the recent G20 summit in Hamburg. Maybe it was the thought of Hamburgers that made Mr Blackford mince his words briefly. He tried to say ‘all forms of modern slavery’ but it came out as ‘all forms of modern savoury’. Good for him. He might find modern savouries of more interest to the voters than boring platitudes about slavery. The most used phrases in the Commons at present include ‘as we leave the European Union’, ‘with Brexit’ and ‘once we have left the European Union’. Whatever Sir Vince Cable (Lib Dem, Twickenham) might say, the Commons has accepted that we are bailing out of Brussels. It is happening. Au revoir, Jean-Claude. There was much talk yesterday of trade deals with non-EU countries.
JErEMy Corbyn’s confidence has grown to the point that he now sounds almost nonchalant – we’ll have him cast in a Noel Coward play soon at this rate. Leaning on the despatch box with one raffish elbow, all he needed was a cream linen suit, a gin and It and a cigarette holder. He complained about arms sales to Saudi Arabia and said Mrs May was not doing enough to lead world opinion against tax avoidance. Mrs May, by way of return, bit off his head about women being bullied by Labour thugs. She did this with a certain amount of violence.
Sir Desmond Swayne (Con, New Forest W) arose from his near-horizontal position. Sir Desmond sits on the benches like a man in his deckchair after Sunday lunch. But the old knight was worried. He had heard rumours that Mrs May was going to make a speech urging Labour to help the Government with Brexit and other matters. ‘About this new love fest with the benches opposite,’ said Sir Desmond, ‘does she possess a very long spoon?’
The day was also notable for the fact that a Lib Dem, Jo Swinson (E Dunbartonshire) complained about the attitude of some G20 countries to newspaper journalism. A member of the Leveson-loving Lib Dems standing up for the free Press? Allelulia!