The neglected duty of the Commons Speaker

SIR – Since the days of Betty Boothroyd, the public could be forgiven for forgetting that the Speaker of the House of Commons is expected to maintain the dignity of this ancient office.

After Michael Martin’s shambolic period, ending in the ignominy of the expenses scandal in 2009, it seemed that anybody would be an improvement. John Bercow seems determined to prove otherwise.

The Speaker must remain scrupulously neutral, but Mr Bercow can hardly be seen to preside fairly over the forthcoming Brexit debates now that he has declared his personal opinions. This indiscretion compounds Mr Bercow’s illconsidered and intemperate remarks about President Trump, the elected head of state of Britain’s main ally.

Mr Bercow has been Speaker for too long and seems to have developed an unhealthy appetite for his own voice. God speed the day when Jacob ReesMogg takes over and there is a return to politeness and dignity.

Gregory Shenkman

London W8

SIR – Mr Bercow has not always been committed to the pro-EU cause.

I attended a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference at Bournemouth in 1998. He addressed this gathering with Alan Clark. The discussion focused on how Edward Heath had deceived the electorate over our membership of the European Economic Community and how one could build a coalition of voters to take us out of the EU.

Mr Bercow was an effective speaker and he enjoyed my full support at the time.

Allan Robertson

London SE8

SIR – Long before his appointment to the Speaker’s chair, I was at a Conservative dinner in Salisbury where Mr Bercow was the guest speaker.

When his turn came, he opened by saying that he had gone down to the Commons library and found a letter from the Bishop of Salisbury to Henry VIII. He had a four-page photocopy of this, full of thees and thous, which he placed on the table.

He then recited the whole letter without a pause, and never once looked down at the script.

No wonder that he has the entire Commons rule book at his fingertips.

Geoffrey Lowndes

Salisbury, Wiltshire