Behave yourselves, SNP are told
NATIONALIST MPs were reprimanded by Commons Speaker John Bercow for breaking with decades of tradition and loudly applauding in the Chamber.
The rowdy MPs were urged to ‘show some respect’ on another day that saw the party’s politicians engage in a series of stunts.
A battle over seating places in the Chamber continued, as 83-year- old Labour MP Dennis Skinner – who has sat in the same spot for years – revealed that he got out of bed at 6am yesterday in a successful bid to beat the Nationalists.
But he said he was so ‘preoccupied’ with the situation that he did not heckle during the Queen’s Speech ceremony – a muchloved tradition adopted by the veteran left-winger.
‘I don’t think you understand the steps that I have to take. I’m dealing with 56 mem-
bers of the Scots Nats and on some days I’ve been doing it single-handed,’ he said.
Sources said several Labour MPs got the better of the SNP when the system of reserving seats with prayer cards got under way at 8am. Labour MPs knew where to stand to be first to pick up the cards.
As yesterday’s debate got under way in the afternoon, MPs could be spotted in the chamber holding guides with photos of the new intake so they could recognise them.
However, it was easy to spot the SNP politicians as they all wore white roses – a tradition the party’s MSPs also adopt when Holyrood is officially opened.
The ‘little white rose’ was first sported in the late 17th and early 18th centuries as a covert political statement by supporters of the exiled King James VII, the last Stuart monarch, who was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in favour of the Protestant William of Orange.
The floral link to modern- day Scottish nationalism is the late Republican poet and political thinker Christopher Murray Grieve who, under the pen name Hugh MacDiarmid, composed the acclaimed short poem The Little White Rose.
During yesterday afternoon’s debate, SNP MPs loudly applauded their Westminster leader Angus Robertson.
But Speaker Mr Bercow said: ‘The convention that we don’t clap in this chamber is very, very, very long- established and widely respected.
‘It would be appreciated if members would show some respect f or that convention.
‘They’ll get their speaking rights from this chair, of that they can be assured.
‘They will be respected. But I would invite them to show some respect for the traditions of this chamber.’