The interest
and excitement caused by Mr. Speaker of our House of Commons, John Bercow's verbal
assault on President Truman, oops, Trump, continues unabated. As these days
Parliament is televised (drama, documentary, news, comedy?) it is my view that
John Boy is bidding for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film And Television Arts)
award at the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow.
There he will
be not only allowed but expected to join in the tirade of complaints about The
President, who I suspect will not only enjoy it but be delighted that the
cacophony will give him ample opportunities for the publicity he needs to get
his message across, a gift, if not from heaven, but allowing him to give the
celebrities hell.
The question
of what might be going on in John's mind and what makes him the uppish, loud,
posturing type he seems to be is interesting. He was born in 1963 which puts
his teenage years between 1976 and 1983. This was the great age of Punk,
Wikipedia and other sites have ample information about all this.
It is said
that many adults never really lose some or all of the ideas, beliefs, attitudes
or behaviour they adopt during these years. So it is possible that John can be
explained as one of the many chaps who never quite grew up, or adjusted to
adult society. If, like so many, he was attached to Punk then all is explained.
There is
another possibility. John went to the University of Essex, one of the new
universities of the 1960's, located at Colchester. This was the town in the
time of Ancient Rome in which the Emperor Claudius was proclaimed a God. Rather
later it was famed for being home to one of the hardest military prisons in the
world.
Take your pick
as to which might be a key influence. There is another one that we might
consider. In 1975 Malcolm Bradbury published a book, "The History
Man" based in 1972 about an ultra Marxist academic Howard Kirk, at a new
English university, who both engaged the permissive society whole heartedly and had dedicated himself to The Revolution to come. The book went to BBC TV in
1985.
John, of
course is a Tory, up to a point. His career has had its twists and turns and at
times have had people wondering if he might switch to Labour, that is if it was
worth his while.
One of the unknowns is how far the fact that he grew up in
North London close to the heartland of Margaret Thatcher's constituency. Could
the role of his family or John himself locally have helped him to get the nod
when selected for the Buckingham constituency?
So what is
John, a north London dealer in this and that? An ageing Punk? A Howard Kirk who
strayed into politics and another party?
Or does he
see himself as an Emperor Claudius?
I am told - reliably I believe - that in his early Conservative career. John Bercow was the most zealous Thatcherite possible, obviously exerting himself to curry favour at every opportunity. Then, observing which way the wind was blowing post 1997, he reinvented himself. Michael,Portillo did something similar and changed from being the bully boy defence minister who would set the SAS on disobliging foreigners to something more " caring". On the whole, Bercow's transformation was more successful. I think Labour MPS supported him just to infuriate the Tories. For the House to select one obviously unsuitable Speaker in Michael Martin might be regarded as a misfortune. To have chosen a second in Bercow looks uncommonly like carelessness.
ReplyDelete"John, of course is a Tory, up to a point."
ReplyDeleteA point defined entirely by his own interests.
"So what is John, a north London dealer in this and that? An ageing Punk? A Howard Kirk who strayed into politics and another party?
ReplyDeleteOr does he see himself as an Emperor Claudius?"
Answer: All of the above as he's a fantasist that is unable to think outside his own pathetic ego.