Parliament: Three sad events and one happy!


'Reluctant' Sir Lindsay Hoyle (centre) is dragged to the speaker’s chair (House of Commons/PA)

https://www.asianimage.co.uk/uk_national_news/18014276.sir-lindsay-hoyle-textiles-printer-speakers-chair/

This last week of October, 2019, has been quite a momentous week for the UK Parliament. In fact, highly charged and emotional with it!

So it might be useful to summarise the events that played out in Parliament over the past week or so that are connected in more ways than one. This was in the context of Boris' attempt to prorogue Parliament until the 14th October which was declared unlawful, on application to the Supreme Court by Gina Miller and others. 


This was also the date for the State Opening of Parliament and Queen's Speech for a new session, that was known to be surreal in view of the fact that the intention was to have another election and therefore a new government as soon as possible.

Sad Event One: Death of thirty-Nine Vietnamese
23rd October, 2019

On the 23rd October, the day of the debate that narrowly approved the motion to approve the new Brexit deal, the news broke of 39 immigrants found dead in a truck trailer in Grays, Essex, newly imported from Zeebrugge. The timetabling programme to consider it was afterwards rejected, effectively killing it stone dead. The deflated PM's described it as, "Approving of the ways but not the means".  At the beginning of the debate, and subsequently by others, the tragedy was referred to. The timing has a strange resonance to the issues in play - immigration, people smuggling, cross-border security, terrorism, Northern Ireland, right-wing extremism - which raises the question, was this accidental or planned for its emotional or practical consequences?

Johnson appears at PMQs and is followed by Home Secretary's statement on lorry deaths | ITV News:   Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-zZJQoKfeQ

Sad Event Two: Grenfell Tower Inquiry Reports
30th October, 2019

We all know how past public inquiries have been used to obfuscate the truth rather than reveal it (cite: 'Bloody Sunday', Hillsborough, Iraq as just three examples) indeed the PM referred to it himself today. The current inquiry into Grenfell, the first part of which has now been published, may be the exception, but it still surprises me that after more than two years it appears there have been no criminal prosecutions.

A public inquiry does not suspend, as far as I am aware, normal statutory provisions and investigative obligations imposed on the police, the health and safety executive and other public bodies in these matters of public protection. What we may ask has happened to these investigations, when on the face of it there were serious failings and breaches of statutory obligations and standards? Were no breaches identified? Was no one responsible?

Boris Johnson: Grenfell victims were 'overlooked, ignored and failed'. Watch:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Q4geKG00M&t=1s  (Opening remarks)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChyvDGvMHIY  (From 5:35:00 in)

Sad Event Three: Brexit Frustrated
31st October, 2019

October 31st was to be the last day Britain remained in the EU, leaving on Boris Johnson's much acclaimed 'new' deal. This in fact is 95% Mrs May's old deal that he voted against but leaving that aside it is Boris, making the best of a bad deal and snatching defeat from the hands of victory. If he were cricketer, and in contrast to ex-PM John Major, Boris put the best spin on it he could.

Stymied by the 'Benn Act', facilitated by extraordinary - even unconstitutional - intervention by the Speaker, it prevented him from leaving without a deal. So bright as he is, with an astute psephologist by his side, the doomed ambition could hardly come as surprise, as could the discovery that he could not achieve the two thirds majority required to call a General Election, as required by the 2011 'Fixed Term Parliaments Act'. 

Fortunately the principle that Parliament is supreme legislatively and that no Parliamentary Act can bind another, enabled legislation to be passed to set aside the above by simple majority to enable a December General Election to be called. The last time a December election was called in 1921 was bit of a disaster for the Conservatives. We shall have to see if it is any better this time around.

If Boris manages to get a majority for Brexit, possibly with an accord with Nigel Farage's party, the way is open to him to repeal the Benn Act completely, and if necessary leave without any deal, including its pernicious trade and other conditions. This might well be the longer end game for which he is playing.

Watch again: MPs approve Boris Johnson's election on December 12  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2JIC93-zFI

Sad Event Four: Speaker Bercow Resigns
31st October, 2019

John Bercow has been an MP for twenty-two years and 'Mr Speaker' for ten. His term as Speaker has been controversial. He and many Members think he was a modernising force for the better. Many compliments flowed on the last day, as well as his own tears, when referring in particular to the support he had received, from his wife Sally (nee Illman) and their three children. (This sits rather uncomfortably with the Wikipedia report that he is currently seeking a divorce!)

One of his first innovations was to dispense with the traditional, though no doubt uncomfortable, wig. Others followed such as improving the facilities for visiting parties of school children and affording back bench MPs far greater access for submitting questions and motions for debate. He was also subject to criticism for alleged partisanship in the the matter of Brexit, in particular facilitating the Benn Act by allowing an Emergency Debate Motion, contrary to convention.

On a more personal level, he was the subject of potentially serious complaints of bullying his staff. Mr Bercow’s former private secretary, Angus Sinclair, told the BBC that the Speaker undermined him by mimicking him, shouting and swearing — and once smashed a mobile phone on a desk in front of him! He was also considered long winded and self-opinionated by some and ironically admired more on the Labour benches, despite being a Conservative MP. 

On a lighter note he was renowned for his amazing ability to recall names and constituencies and to remain in the chair without (toilet) breaks for up to nine hours, which for the writer can only be described as super-human on both counts.

Watch again: John Bercow tears up as MPs pay tribute at hisfinal PMQs 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cF8pby9T6U&t=6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cF8pby9T6U

Happy Event One: New Speaker Assumes his Chair
11th November, 2019

Recently knighted, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, 62, became the new Speaker, after winning an election of MPs.  Following tradition, he was 'dragged' to his new and prestigious 'seat'. This particular ancient tradition dates back to a time, when the role involved no little danger in representing the view of the House of Commons, sometimes in opposition to an almighty Monarch. In fact seven Speakers were beheaded between 1394 and 1535! We hopefully live in more enlightened times.

Lindsay Harvey Hoyle was born on 10 June 1957, the son of Labour MP Doug (now Lord) Hoyle. He has been the Labour MP for Chorley in Lancashire since 1997. 

Since 2010 he has been the popular Chairman of Ways and Means, in charge of Budget Debates (see the Boris comment above) and Deputy Speaker. Since 2013 he has been a Privy Councillor, a mark of Establishment approval. 

In March 2017 he found himself in the onerous position of being in the chair when a terror attack took place in the precincts of Parliament, when he gained plaudits for his measured response

“We’re in a village and our village policeman (PC Keith Palmer) has been murdered and all of our thoughts are with the family and the other innocent victims,” he told BBC News on his way in to work the next day. “But of course the House must continue – we will not give in to terrorism and today we’ll continue.”

In his acceptance speech, Hoyle stated that "this House will change, but it will change for the better", which rather begs the question, in what way? He also stated he would be a "transparent" Speaker,  pledging to take the welfare of House of Commons staff seriously. He said he wanted the Commons to be “once again a great respected House, not just in here but across the world”. Some might regard this as a guarded indication of his feelings towards the previous incumbent - who knows?

Even this happy moment was touched by sorrow. In his acceptance speech he referred to the untimely death of his daughter Natalie Lewis-Hoyle, in December 2017 at the age of 28. She apparently had tragically hanged herself following a coercive and "very toxic" relationship. 

Sir Lindsay told the Commons, as he fought back tears: “There is one person who’s not here, my daughter Natalie. I wish she’d have been here, we all miss her as a family, no more so than her mum. I’ve got to say, she was everything to all of us, she will always be missed but she will always be in our thoughts.”

Sir Lindsay Hoyle is elected new Speaker of the House of Commons replacing John Bercow Watch more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JsjP8mlUDA

In parliamentary terms October 2019 has been momentous and very emotional time. I'm sure in the oldest democratic parliament in the world, it will be an earnest of the forthcoming ones.