Breathtaking Hypocrisy Of Speaker Of The House John Bercow

By Graham Vanbergen – I am no fan of Donald Trump but make of all this hypocrisy what you will. BBC Headline today – “Speaker Bercow: Trump should not speak in Parliament.” The report goes on to say Mr Bercow told MPs that “opposition to racism and sexism” were “hugely important considerations”. He told MPs that addressing the Lords and the Commons was “an earned honour”, not an “automatic right”.

John Bercow’s job as Speaker of the House of Commons is to preside over the House’s debates, determining which members may speak. He is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, and may punish members who break the rules of the House. Clearly, Bercow has not fully read the terms and conditions of his job description.

“Before the imposition of the migrant ban, I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall,” he said. “After the imposition of the migrant ban I am even more strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall.”

Bercow went on “However, as far as this place is concerned, I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons.”

John Bercow’s comments were applauded by MPs and supported by Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn and Lib Dem’s Tim Farron. All had forgotten, this is not Bercow’s role in our democracy.

President Trump was invited to make a state visit after meeting Theresa May in Washington last month which Bercow looks set to completely undermine.

In the meantime, Theresa May has warned MP’s that “now is not the time to obstruct the will of the British people” – which unelected John Bercow has just set out to do.

Perhaps Mr Bercow has forgotten how desperate Britain is to sign a US/UK trade deal.

Perhaps Mr Bercow had forgotten that since politicians forced an EU referendum that in large part was about immigration, racism has increased dramatically. Figures published last October by the Home Office revealed that police recorded a 41 per cent increase on the same month the previous year in just three months since the referendum.

It wasn’t so long ago that Britain was accused of being one of the most sexist countries in the western world. The Telegraph reported “Sexism in the UK is more ‘pervasive’ than in any other country she’s visited, according to the UN spokeswoman on violence against women. Rashida Manjoo, a human rights expert, says that there is a “boys’ club” sexist culture, which gives rise to perceptions about women and girls in this country.” I wonder what ‘boys club’ the United Nations may be referring to?

Perhaps Mr Bercow should visit Iraq where even as right-wing Telegraph reports “women used to enjoy six months fully-paid maternity leave until we decided to intervene and bring them ‘freedom’. Equal Rights for women enshrined in the Iraqi constitution have disappeared.” That coupled with the crippling sanctions against Iraq during the 1990s meant that a country that had the highest female literacy rates in the entire region no longer has anywhere close to that. The same can be said of Libya, which enjoyed the highest standard of living and rights for women in Africa until Britain decided to bomb it into oblivion. Syria is no different. Displacement, sexual assault, kidnap, house arrest and political exclusion are all daily occurrences for Syria’s female population as a direct result of Britain’s involvement in this disgraceful and unjustified war. In 2003 Britain even invited Goerge Bush to a full-on state visit just six months after the invasion of Iraq and less than a year from the biggest protest march the country had ever witnessed in its long history.

Theresa May’s government was criticised for scrapping the post of minister for newly arrived Syrian refugees last July, Mr Bercow seems to have forgotten his moral compass on this small detail.

Perhaps Mr Bercow has also forgotten that despite David Cameron’s vow two years ago that the UK ended up ranking as one of the worst countries in Europe for gender equality at work, a study from Glassdoor found. Has Bercow made a stand about this?

As far as Bercow’s comments on the ‘migrant ban’ is concerned, perhaps he and his supporters should think about those very same countries that did not invite Britain to bomb them into the stone age. Britain has the dubious reputation of being America’s lapdog and it has certainly earned that title following America’s disastrous foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa leading directly to a crisis of immigration that Britain wants nothing to do with that caused the refugee (or migrant’s as Bercow prefers) crisis in the first place.

Bercow, raucously supported by members of parliament have overseen rising inequality where the very rich have powerful have increased their financial and political standing in Britain whilst witnessing the crushing of the middle classes with all measures of poverty rapidly rising. Politicians have staged the biggest decision Britain has made for decades based on a raft of lies and deception which ended in a breakaway from the European Union and quite possibly the Union of Britain itself – without having any coherent plan, that is still evident today.

 

Bercow’s moralising is also misplaced. Here’s a headline from just a few months ago “COMMONS ‘COVER-UP’ FURY MP told Speaker John Bercow about Keith Vaz sex claims a year ago but Bercow ‘wanted to protect his pal.” We shouldn’t forget that Bercow has his own expenses scandal he’d like the public to forget such as the FOI request that revealed the public has paid for hundreds of postcard-sized photographs of the himself, nearly £2,000 worth of beeswax candles and the tuning of his grand piano. His expenses now amount to over half a million pounds of state aid a year.

As far as state visits are concerned, Bercow should not forget that Britain has a tradition of welcoming dictators and despots when it’s convenient.

The Queen’s honoured guest by Mobutu Sese Seko, the then president of Zaire in 1973 (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) was a homicidal dictator who embezzled $15bn.

Nicolae Ceaușescu, the hardline communist leader of Romania was a guest in 1978 but he ended up being executed for genocide by his own people.

Madman and professional dictator Robert Mugabe got the royal treatment in 1994 as did President Suharto of Indonesia in 1979), both known for their appalling internal repression and state sponsored murders.

President, Xi Jinping of China visited in 2015. Beijing’s human rights record is abysmal and its failure to keep promises in the former British colony of Hong Kong is causing serious problems but it is economically convenient to invite him as a guest of the state, especially now the Chinese are building our future power infrastructure as we can’t afford to.

Bercow does not represent the people of Britain as he is not elected by them. He is stoking up anti-American sentiment that an already euphoric press, unconcerned with anything other than their failing financial viability are already in raptures about that only continues to divide our nation.

Aside from all this hypocrisy by Bercow and in fact most of the self-serving politicians that now inhabit our own swamp, right at this moment in history, Britain needs as many friends as possible. Populists are dangerous and if ever there was an act of subversion of parliament and treachery to the state, Bercow and his shallow cronies are on trend.

 

 

 

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