Bercow Remains Speaker

John Bercow has this afternoon been re-elected as the Speaker of the House of Commons, subject to the Queen's approbation tomorrow.

This is not exactly unexpected: despite his flaws he is broadly good at the (overall) job, only part of which we witness in the House itself.

He has committed to being scrupulously fair in future, and he needs to be held to that, as he has fallen short of a proper standard in this regard, during these past several months since his first election to the position.

It was a delight (as it always is) to see and hear from former Speaker Betty Boothroyd on the BBC Parliament Channel after the formalities had been completed, including speeches from David Cameron (Conservative), Harriet Harman (Labour), Angus Robertson (SNP) and David Blunkett (for the backbenchers).

The Cameron speech is now viewable in the above video clip, along with the Speaker's preamble. I spotted local Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti among the backbenchers...

Betty's knowledge of Parliament and its procedures and history, and her strong support of tradition were immensely helpful in understanding so much of what had just happened, and of how well Bercow had been performing despite all the brickbats, many of which were in fact deserved.

Bercow will of course now be well aware that the voting power has shifted, and if he is to retain his resumed position for very long he'll need to deal with the issues for which he has been rightly criticised.

Finally, it was interesting to see the new Parliament's members layout, with the Conservatives (and Nick Clegg & Vince Cable) now on the Speaker's right side, along with very full benches of Conservative MPs.

The rest of the Lib Dems don't fit on that side, so are still on the opposite side of the Chamber. Some members have to stand when the House is more-or-less fully attended, as it was today.

So, we're off! Tomorrow's The next Prime Minister's Questions session ought to be very interesting...