Speaker stands up to the Downing Street bully boys
SIR LINDSAY Hoyle’s defiant defence of Parliamentary democracy this week from Downing Street ‘ bully boys’ trying to ride roughshod over elected MPs with the ‘ back door’ passing of Covid laws marks him out as one of the great Speakers.
For, while America’s written constitution is put to the test by the most hostile election in its history, Sir Lindsay’s dramatic intervention now sets a precedent that potentially protects Britain’s unwritten constitution from the draconianism seen in recent weeks.
And it was his element of surprise, at the outset of Prime Minister’s Questions when the greatest number of people are viewing proceedings, which left Boris Johnson sulking in silence.
Even though Sir Lindsay has been sympathetic over Covid, he’s had enough of Ministers taking Parliament for granted after putting Health Secretary Matt Hancock on notice last month.
He said the haste of some measures had shown “a total disregard for the House” – I believe the 10pm pub curfew would have been refined if it had been put before Parliament before its implementation.
He didn’t end here. He turned to Johnson and told him that the Government “to rebuild the trust” and stop treating Parliament with “contempt”.
A timid PM offered no response – he’s no Parliamentarian, debater or orator in the mould of his hero Winston Churchill.
When Johnson stepped out of line shortly afterwards in exchanges with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, the Speaker pointed out – again with no fuss – that it was “Prime Minister’s questions, not Opposition questions”
And when Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston hinted in a subsequent statement about a new strategy for grassroots sport, the Speaker interjected: “I hope the Minister will ensure that the House hears it first.”
It was a ‘ back of the net’ admonishment which confirmed that this no- nonsense Speaker is more than a match for 10 Downing Street when it comes to reasserting Parliament’s supremacy when it comes to the passing of laws – even in times of crisis – and the scrutiny of Ministers.
Twenty years after Yorkshire’s very own Betty Boothroyd stepped down, the contempt of Ministers has finally been exposed and Parliament now has a Speaker able to uphold her reputation – and legacy. Thank you Sir Lindsay.
THIS WEEK’S Panorama investigation left me even more convinced that the Test and Trace programme will only work if it is left by local councils.
It was a point made very persuasively by Leeds City Council chief executive
Tom Riordan who was seconded to the programme to work under Baroness Dido Harding.
What I don’t understand, however, is why a health minister – or, better still, Baroness Harding – did not respond onair to complaints from whistleblowers about inefficiencies and failings.
Even more, there’s no reason why Baroness Harding can’t be compelled to appear before the House of Lords each week to take questions from peers on her work – and listen to their constructive suggestions.
Some humility – and accountability – might even help assuage those who are bemused why the former head of a telecoms firm, who was at the helm during an unprecedented data breach, has so much influence over Covid- 19.
And she might explain her feelings after Andrew Thornton, the jockey who rode her horse Cool Dawn to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory in 1998, ended up this week being banned from racecourses for seven days after attending meetings without completing in advance an online test on Covid safety precautions.
How embarrassing.
THIS BRINGS me to a quite brilliant interview with David Dimbleby, the former Question Time presenter, in The Times, lamenting the declining quality of panellists on the show.
He believes some leading politicians are put off by the aggressive tone of some participants and he accepts responsibility for encouraging the participation of audience members whose views have become more heated.
He named Shirley Williams, Michael
Heseltine, Ken Clarke and Tony Benn as senior politicians who always went on the show to defend their party’s policies.
I’d add Diane Abbott. Like her or not, the former Shadow Home Secretary never backed down – even in the knowledge that her appearance would provoke the most vile racial hatred.
Now it is rare for the most senior Cabinet ministers to appear. And Dimbleby makes this telling point: “They weren’t scared. Now politicians think ‘ What’s in it for me?’ But they are a bloody elected politician, it’s their duty to explain what they are doing...” I agree.
TALKING OF Ken Clarke, the former Minister who refused to carry a mobile phone so for long made a quite brilliant maiden speech in the House of Lords this week.
The one problem is technology as “a 20th- century man is being forced to get into the 21st century” as a result of his elevation to this historic institution.
“Trying to open and switch on a laptop and an iPad, then contemplate how to use them, is my biggest problem at the moment,” he disclosed. Perhaps there’s still hope for technophobes like myself.
FINALLY I’M surprised Education Secretary Gavin Williamson’s special adviser Angus Walker – a former ITN journalist – is in the running to front Downing Street’s new daily press conferences.
They didn’t exactly demonstrate clear communications over this summer’s exams results – in fact it was deserving of a Grade U for being unbelievably bad.