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Matthew Parris in the Times commented upon the departure of Speaker Martin And ended with the following words: “A decade hence, when we look back on this weird season in British politics, we will struggle to remember how it was that everyone decided to make the Speaker the villain of the piece.”

It is a fair minded thing to write and yet within that it does need to be understood that whilst as Martin indicated in his rather bitter parting words, although not the only ’sinner’, he does stand for more than just a sacrificial lamb, he is not innocent.

A Symbol of 1997

Apparently, already a Deputy Speaker, he lobbied the Labour MPs of which there was a vast majority, for their support in the election for Speaker. It was obvious to many then including on the Labour benches, that he was not suitable for the post but with the arrogance that so marked Blair’s New Labour Party, they voted him in, “Because they could”.

He was always incompetent in the job indeed right to the very end and frankly should have been removed from Office long since as the whole of the House already knew, how he lasted as long is in itself a disgrace on all the members of that House.

No Sympathy

He was not by nature an honourable man as his attempt to shift the blame for the Damien Green Affair to the Sergeant at Arms demonstrated, no “The Buck Stops Here” from Michael Martin in this or anything.

That he was no more and no less to blame for not reforming the expenses system a 12 month earlier than the Party Leaders is just not an acceptable excuse on his part, it is part of the Speaker’s role and duties to ensure the dignity and reputation of Parliament is upheld at all times. His complaint indicates a man who did not fully grasp the importance of his Office and clearly saw it as a “just reward” for his years of service to the Labour Party. This also explains the sometimes quite blatant partiality he displayed towards his former “comrades”.

Good Riddance

The man walks away with a handsome pension but does so by in no way having enhanced the stature of his Office whilst he had tenure, whoever follows will have a difficult task to try and restore what has been lost these last nine years.

The BBC “Have Your Say” section on their web site is generally populated with the “grot and the snot” but what can you expect given a maximum of 150 characters to express yourself in ? But that said, I was more than surprised browsing the first few pages yesterday, the total disrespect for the Office of Speaker was clearly expressed via:

“Who Cares ? Some other idiot. Big Ears or Noddy…” and so on and so forth.

Unfortunately our MPs are not well endowed with grey matter so I am sure that they will elect totally the wrong person and we will have a repeat of this in a few years time. They really should appoint an interim Speaker and Ann Widdecombe would be the best pick, the Bookies Favourite John Bercow likely the worse, so we can expect the worse, another idiot “on the make.”