No marriage is worth breaking up for selfish Mrs Bercow

John Bercow, the Speaker of the house of commons, is far from my favourite person. But I can’t help feeling a little sorry for the poor man as he (once again) suffers terrible humiliation in his personal life.

Even by her own subterranean standards, his wife, Sally, has dealt him a low blow.

not merely by having an extramarital affair, but one with his own cousin, Alan Bercow, who is married to a rather attractive woman called erica Scott-Young. The pair are successful lawyers, and they have a young son.

So far Bercow has said nothing about the situation. Sally, meanwhile, has been her usual publicityhungry self, cutting an increasingly hysterical figure, posing for photographers on crutches, bursting into tears and talking gibberish.

But, then, I’ve always felt Sally was not so much bad as mad.

I have met her once or twice at events organised by the Speaker in his commons apartment.

on each occasion I’ve been struck by how nervous she is — as jittery as a newborn fawn.

And how, despite being attractive — she has a knock-out figure and a classically beautiful face — she has virtually no self-confidence.

with a shaky, uncertain smile, she comes across as hopelessly overwhelmed by her surroundings: socially inept, yet desperate to be liked.

It’s a dangerous combination — especially in politics, where it does not pay to care too much about what others think of you.

SALLY has another problem: she’s a fully paid up Tory-loathing leftie, yet her privileged life is entirely dependent on her husband’s conservative seat.

It’s because of this paradox that she tries so hard to prove she’s not just another political spouse; to impress with her independent spirit and too-cool-for-school-ness.

This leads her to make some catastrophically idiotic choices.

Posing naked in a bedsheet in front of Parliament; going on celebrity Big Brother; getting drunk; snogging random men in nightclubs

But none of it has worked. Because ultimately Sally Bercow despises herself even more than her worst critics. And, like so many people consumed by self-loathing, she can damage those who love her most.

her three children, for a start, one of whom is autistic. only a mother so blinded by her own unhappiness could risk causing them so much suffering, as surely her behaviour inevitably must.

Then there’s her husband, whom she clearly loves in her own tortured way and who has also been commendably loyal to her.

Another intriguing aspect of this whole car crash is Sally’s choice of lover. John Bercow is no oil painting, but he’s Brad Pitt compared with his cousin Alan. So if she’s not sleeping with him for his looks, what does she see in him?

Simple: he’s her husband’s cousin, adding a certain piquancy to their affair and twisting the knife just that little bit more.

As for Alan’s wife, erica — well, she’s just collateral damage, an innocent casualty of Sally’s personal mission of self-destruction.

It’s testimony to the woman’s intelligence that, sensibly, she has decided to take her husband back. no marriage is worth dismantling for the sake of a Sally Bercow and no son should be separated from his father because of the actions of this selfish yet ultimately tragic woman.

Alan, meanwhile, should feel immensely relieved over his wife’s patience. Talk about a lucky escape!

Some might call erica’s forgiveness weak. In fact, the opposite is true. It takes immense strength of character to do what she has done.

That — and the fact that you would never want to give Sally Bercow the satisfaction of breaking up your marriage.