1997 All Over Again?

Here we go again, about dispensing with references to MPs by the names of their constituencies rather than by their own names. At least no one has yet suggested ending the practice of speaking through the Chair.

Betty Boothroyd, being Old Labour, made a point of ensuring that she commanded enough of a presence to nip this sort of thing in the bud. But John Bercow is New Labour, accordingly besporting himself in what appears to be an undergraduate gown, and other such silliness. Has he enough of the spirit of George Thomas? I very much doubt it. Backbenchers of his former party may want rid of him. But whom would they put in his place?

It needs to be someone with Thomas's uncompromising support for national sovereignty and the Union, both safeguarded by the monarchy, as the means to a social democracy which was itself the bulwark against Communism, and which is founded on the traditional Christianity also embodied by the monarchical institution. That tradition, that bulwark demands a restored voice in the House of Commons at the earliest opportunity. And to the Speakers' Chair at the earliest opportunity after that, which would not yet appear to have arrived.

In full fig, including wig. As with a bishop's mitre or a mayor's chain, and as with the Queen's Crown, it is about the office signified by the wearing, not about the individual who happens to be the wearer.