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Never has the Speaker been so warmly appreciated as on the first day of his afterlife.
Gordon Brown who ventured across Speakers Yard only a couple of days ago to recommend that Michael Martin step aside, was full of retrospective appreciation for an "outstanding record of service over thirty years".
Some of us struggle to remember Mr Martin's soaraway contribution to public life: but even David Cameron, who whipped up the mood for Mr Michael's mercy killing, now says he'll "never forget his kindness".
Nick Clegg, the only consistent one who called for the Speaker's head from the start, got a barracking from the Labour benches. Mr Clegg is having a good run - which always annoys the other parties.
Off we trotted with the Royal Mail privatisation. Mr Brown is touchy on this one, probably because anti-privatization Old Gordon would not have approved of it and New Gordon somehow does. "It's lost 5 million letters a year?" he cried.
Yer what? Ms Harman and Mr Darling saw the malentendu and indulged in a front bench giggle. Mr Brown was impervious to it. Delivering 5 million fewer letters is not quite the same as losing them in a hedgerow.
Mr Cameron bounced to his feet in maximally perky mode to ask why we can't have a election "He thinks he's gunnoo lose!" crowed the Tory leader, who has acquired the tone of a tipsy city trader taunting a rival at Happy Hour.
The Prime Minister resorted to statesman mode, preaching "humility" probably the attribute least associated with him by his colleagues.
Dave followed his election fixation across all three questions. In the manner of a toddler wearing down his parents, he intends to keep asking until he gets one: otherwise a major tantrum might just break out.
It's worth it just for how much it annoys the PM. "Give the public a voice," said Mr Cameron. "I'm not supporting Conservative Spending cuts," replied Mr Brown.
The conversation between these two is becoming more Beckettian by the week. The exchanges of Vladimir and Estragon seem like pure logic compared to this. Mr Brown always talks about Sure Start, investment and the evil spectre of Tory cuts: Mr Cameron always talks about "the People" as if endowed with a personal hotline to the national will.
In the Speaker's chair, the ruddy, bleary figure brooded over it and issued the odd chiding interjection, while he still can. The tributes are the comforting hypocries dished out at such times: balm to a wound inflicted by all sides. As MPs bustled out, the talk was already of the next candidate.
Reader views (2)
Old boys club looking after old boys?
- Hatchet, Newcastle Australia, 20/05/2009 22:42
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What a shallow, twofaced hypocrite David Cameron is. How any rightminded person can believe in his sincerity about anything is beyond me. Gordon Brown at least waited until the end result was inevitable before he offered his advice. And Nick Clegg, to his credit, remained consistent throughout.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa, Spain, 20/05/2009 14:20
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