Pleasingly old-school moment in the middle of the week. We started with the row about Donald Trump's invitation to come over on a State Visit. All rumbling along nicely, punctuated by the occasional weather warning about an "Arctic Blast" heading our way from Siberia (translation: forecast of an east wind), and then some journalist asked whether the US President would be invited to address both houses of parliament while he was here. That hadn't been on the agenda, and generally wouldn't be on the agenda with a run-of-the-mill State Visit, but Somebody In Government accepted the premise of the question, and all of a sudden, we had a new argument.
Then the Speaker of the House of Commons took it upon himself to tell the House, and the media, that he wouldn't be inviting The Donald into his House any time soon. Unexpected, but yes, strictly, the invitation to address the Commons was his to send. Not the invitation to address the House of Lords, but we'll come to that later.
Pretty average week so far. There was a row about Brexit, and then a vote, and members of the Shadow Cabinet either resigned or didn't resign, were or weren't punished for it. The sun came up in the mornings and went down in the evenings. My daffodils are coming up, though not so much the snowdrops this year, and the tulips are beginning to show. Roses are waking up, and I'm optimistic about the big camellia. Flat-calm high tide this morning, down at Fish Strand Quay, mirroring the early sky.
So anyway - here it is. Driving into Truro midweek, I turned on the radio. Veteran Tory MP expressing his view of the Speaker's intervention. Of course, the Speaker was entitled to his view, and it would be for the Speaker to reflect himself on whether his intervention had been appropriate to his role. The Speaker had been in the job for nine years, and it would be entirely up to the Speaker to decide whether nine years was long enough. He might decide to stay on, but after nine years... No, there was no question of a Vote of No Confidence in the Speaker, because of course the Speaker was entirely competent to make his own mind up as to what the future held...
I remember that expression "the men in grey suits". Regime change in the Conservative Party was generally attributed to "the men in grey suits", who moved (almost) entirely behind the scenes. There was never anything so gauche as, well, a Vote of No Confidence, and of course, the Speaker, although this time round he happens to be a Conservative MP, is a neutral figure and thus immune to party discipline. No doubt that veteran Tory MP was only mentioning a Vote of No Confidence to make the point that nobody was mentioning a Vote of No Confidence and the Speaker had nothing to worry about, really, nothing at all.
I haven't heard a politician so expertly delivering that particular brand of reassurance in years. It became known, the following day, that the Speaker of the House of Commons had apologised to his counterpart (and fellow party member), the Speaker of the House of Lords (who no doubt owns several grey suits), for not consulting him before speaking out.
The week ended with a younger (45) Tory MP tabling a Vote of No Confidence in the Speaker. Reports suggest that senior members of the Conservative Party are standing behind the Speaker.
Right behind him, I imagine.
Then the Speaker of the House of Commons took it upon himself to tell the House, and the media, that he wouldn't be inviting The Donald into his House any time soon. Unexpected, but yes, strictly, the invitation to address the Commons was his to send. Not the invitation to address the House of Lords, but we'll come to that later.
Pretty average week so far. There was a row about Brexit, and then a vote, and members of the Shadow Cabinet either resigned or didn't resign, were or weren't punished for it. The sun came up in the mornings and went down in the evenings. My daffodils are coming up, though not so much the snowdrops this year, and the tulips are beginning to show. Roses are waking up, and I'm optimistic about the big camellia. Flat-calm high tide this morning, down at Fish Strand Quay, mirroring the early sky.
So anyway - here it is. Driving into Truro midweek, I turned on the radio. Veteran Tory MP expressing his view of the Speaker's intervention. Of course, the Speaker was entitled to his view, and it would be for the Speaker to reflect himself on whether his intervention had been appropriate to his role. The Speaker had been in the job for nine years, and it would be entirely up to the Speaker to decide whether nine years was long enough. He might decide to stay on, but after nine years... No, there was no question of a Vote of No Confidence in the Speaker, because of course the Speaker was entirely competent to make his own mind up as to what the future held...
I remember that expression "the men in grey suits". Regime change in the Conservative Party was generally attributed to "the men in grey suits", who moved (almost) entirely behind the scenes. There was never anything so gauche as, well, a Vote of No Confidence, and of course, the Speaker, although this time round he happens to be a Conservative MP, is a neutral figure and thus immune to party discipline. No doubt that veteran Tory MP was only mentioning a Vote of No Confidence to make the point that nobody was mentioning a Vote of No Confidence and the Speaker had nothing to worry about, really, nothing at all.
I haven't heard a politician so expertly delivering that particular brand of reassurance in years. It became known, the following day, that the Speaker of the House of Commons had apologised to his counterpart (and fellow party member), the Speaker of the House of Lords (who no doubt owns several grey suits), for not consulting him before speaking out.
The week ended with a younger (45) Tory MP tabling a Vote of No Confidence in the Speaker. Reports suggest that senior members of the Conservative Party are standing behind the Speaker.
Right behind him, I imagine.