Small mercies for BBC World at One presenter Sarah Montague, who just had to endure a 4-minute rant from John Bercow over today’s guilty verdict – at least it was 9 minutes shorter than the diatribe a member of his own staff had to suffer through during his tenure as Speaker. Listen at your own peril.
It was the usual routine today from John, who followed up his statement this morning by criticising Kathryn Stone for having “absolutely no body of expertise whatsoever” on his case, and repeatedly interrupting Montague to correct her “confused” questioning. How he was found guilty today will be a question for the ages.
After raging at Montague for most of his appearance, Bercow signed off by reassuring listeners once again that he “never applied” for a parliamentary pass and “didn’t want one“. Apparently it was an “absurd penalty” and “ridiculous“. What was he hoping for? Something more severe?
The BBC’s Sarah Montague silently spoke for all of us this afternoon as she punched the air with news from the UK Vaccine Taskforce’s Professor Sir John Bell that life will return to normal by spring. In his words: “yes, yes, yes!”
The Sunday Times scooped the news that Corbyn is nominating Bercow, Karie Murphy and Tom Watson – among others – for peerages. The revolution will begin after they’ve finished appointing unelected ermine-draped lords…
Back in 2016 Tom Watson led calls for Theresa May to block David Cameron’s resignation honours on the basis he was using the list to “repay political debts to his allies”, and in the process was undermining a system that should be used only to “reward exceptional public service”. If Watson accepts, it’ll be quite the self-assessment…
Watson complained to the World at One that giving Labour advisor Spencer Livermore a peerage was “rewarding failure” given his part in losing the election, ironic given Lord Watson will now be sitting next to Karie Murphy on the red benches. When Watson announced his resignation before the election, Guido was told he had agreed to go quietly in exchange for a peerage.
