Mutterings around the Palace of Westminster this morning as Bercow announces he is rightly slashing £12 million from the Commons budget. Select Committees have had £800,000 pulled from their junket kitty and £500,000 pounds worth of the booze subsidy is going. Writing to MPs last night he said he pledged to “bring cafeteria prices into line with typical workplace venues and bar prices into line with a competitively priced high street pub chain.” That’s a Wetherspoons then.

It’s a good start but the subsidy has clearly not been lifted completely. Bercow deserves some credit here but he has hardly been an austerity Speaker. Bag carriers and hacks were more than a little disgruntled when he announced that Bellamy’s bar, fresh from it’s £48,000 make over, was to be shut down and turned into a non-sound proofed crèche. Late and well over budget, more than a £200,000 has been wasted on a PR stunt…