Monday, June 22, 2009

Speaker Election Live Blog



15.37 Dhanda did very well and has done himself a huge amount of good. 7.5/10

15.35 Dhanda has some wacky ideas, but delivers them charmingly.

15.32 Parmjit Dhanda has won my vote by wearing a Duchamp tie!

15.31 Short speech from Sir Alan Haselhurst but it got good cheers. 8/10.

15.27 Apologies. Had to take phone call so missed most of Sir Patrick.

15.19 Sir Patrick Cormack mentions Bannockburn. Not sure that was wise.

15.17 Too long. I can't remember much Michael Lord said. Said he hadn't campaigned or canvassed colleagues. Whaddamistakadamaka. 6/10.

15.12 Michael Lord rather pedestrian. He needed to be extraordinary.

15.09 Less eloquent than I would have expected from Richard Shepherd. 6/10.

15.04 Richard Shepherd gets off to a nervous start.

15.02 Bercow slightly lost his way towards the end, but delivered a powerful performance. Not sure if it will have convinced many Tories. 8.5/10.

15.01 I take it back. Bercow did have notes. They were being held and shown to him by Julian Lewis to his left.

14.59 Bercow had a dodgy start, but has delivered a stormer. No notes, passionate and full of content.

14.54 I nearly fell asleep. Woeful. 5/10.

14.51 Sir Alan Beith is unlucky in having to follow Widdecombe. He is speaking too quickly and reading from notes.

14.50 Widdecombe sits down having made a very powerful speech. Will have swung a few doubters I suspect. 8.5/10.

14.48 Widdecombe speaking from the heart without notes. House receiving it well. I wonder...

14.44 Widders: "I am unique". No one's arguing!

14.43 George Young was very good. Lots of content and ideas. 8/10.May well have swung some doubters.

14.38 George Young kicks off with some good titter-raising jokes. "I'm in the Conservative Party, not run by the Conservative Party".

14.37 Beckett 6/10. Competent, but hardly radical, with no 'hear hears' at any point except the end.

14.36 I have just tweeted to Tom Harris: "I dare you to pinch her bottom..."

14.31 Margaret Beckett's opening joke falls flat and fails to raise even a titter.

14.25 Ladbrokes are quoting Sir Alan Haselhurst at 12/1, down from 40/1 on Friday. They tell me they had a large number of bets after I placed my own on Friday afternoon. I shall have to bear in mind in future how easy it is to influence a betting market!

14.20 Only ten minutes to go before the speeches start. I'm told they are restricted to 8 minutes each, so the voting won't start until about 3.45pm. I wonder what proportion of MPs will be listening to the hustings speeches with a completely open mind.

72 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shall I provide a quick table of which one claimed which expenses?

Verity said...

Anonymous - Yes.

Anonymous said...

Verity ... a taste!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/5595209/Race-for-the-Speakers-chair-candidate-odds.html

Anonymous said...

Has Bercow made his nominations public yet?

Cynic said...

As a good Conserrvative I hope Beckett wins. The whole sordid deal that was done as part of the reshuffle will be exposed again and the electors will see it as the Labour old guard just sticking 2 fingers up to their concerns and at the next election will vote accordingly.

Every time we see her on TV will be a reminder!

And the House will look so much better for all those floral hanging baskets she will put up.

Anonymous said...

If you backed at 40-1 and it's now 12-1 you should try and hedge the bet right away. That's free money right there

angry farmer said...

Tories with countryside constituencies and who are thinking of voting for Beckett would do well to recall her disasterous tenure at DEFRA and the misery she heaped upon the farming community. They, and all other MPs, might then reflect on her expenses claims and watch her being booed on Question Time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4zayqxFYFk

They might then come to the conclusion, reached by (probably) 80% of voters, that she is an absolutely ludicrous choice.

Snookums said...

Iain - take the money and run! Beckett was atrocious by the way.

Jim Baxter said...

Who was that very fidgety chap sitting behind Ma Beckett as she droned on? Most distracting.

Anonymous said...

George Young doing a good speech here I think...

Anonymous said...

Widdy is fab, but you just couldn't listen to that voice hour after hour up until the next election..

Anonymous said...

Widdecombe is not spelling out her main advantage which is that if she is retiring she doesn't need to worry about her personal popularity.

Anonymous said...

Here's hoping that the Labour benches, after 12 years of craven troughing, do one last single right thing.

Sue said...

Sir Alan Beith, drone, what a bore!

Anonymous said...

Widdy IS fab, and spoke well - albeit an octave too high. I fear that Iain's earlier observation that an interim Speaker does no favours to new MPs come the next GE who will not have much knowledge of the contenders (and are likely to be whipped into line).

God, I wish the annoying commentary was muted!

Anonymous said...

Bercow has to sit with his supporters around him, is he insecure?

Anonymous said...

Sorry their is something about John Berk that just annoys me.

Anonymous said...

Bercow - by far the slimiest so far.

Anonymous said...

Bercow doing crappily unless he finishes very well indeed.

Tom said...

The man to the left of Bercow is holding up his notes for him. Look at the way their eyes point downwards in the same direction every minute or so.

Anonymous said...

Bercom has just claimed that Parliament is not corrupt, where has he been for the part 7 weeks?

Whiffler said...

While I enjoy your blog (and that of Guido), I find it very strange that teh BBC can't cover this real-time.

They have a (radio) digital channel for Parliament, yet it only broadcasts such as Today/Yesterday in Parliament.

Why doesn't it air at important moments ?. It wouldn't need much to support it, just s continuity person to explain what is going on in the gaps in proceedings in the Chamber.

It wouldn't take much for a couple of old war-horses to fill in impartially while votes are counted - just so that listeners know why they should keep listening.

I'd do it for fifty grand. Plus expenses. And a second home. And allowances. But then, I'm not up to being an MP.

Surely Aunty is recording all this stuff, what's so difficult about airing it ?.

Why doesn't the Parliament channel stay on all the time, broadcasting R4 or BBC WS in the down time ?.

Sport seems to have a better idea than Politics, and even that's a bit ropey.

Sue said...

Bercow sounds desperate, he makes my skin crawl... euuww.

Anonymous said...

Bercow amateurish compared to the professionalism of George Young.

Anonymous said...

No notes Iain? His little friend to his left is obviously holding them - or else Mr Bercow is unable to overcome a distracting obsession with his colleagues groin. What a dreadful little man.

Whiffler said...

Where are you listening to this ?

Anonymous said...

To Whiffler
Parliament Channel on iPlayer

Anonymous said...

I do like Sheperd, he will sort out the commons. Vote for Sheperd!

Anonymous said...

Scorching speech from Sheppie that shows up the dull windbaggery of Beith and Bercow...

James Manning said...

Never seen Shepherd speak before. He comes across as mental.

Whiffler said...

Cheers AN.

No can do on iPlayer (courtesy of office Gestapo) - HMG want people to use digital radio, but only computer users are catered for.

B@st@rds.

Sorry, did I say that earlier ?.

B@st@rds !!

Anonymous said...

Alan Beith boring? Well, that's a turn up for the books, I must say.

Anonymous said...

Lord, what a windbag.

Tony_E said...

Shepherd for speaker. That was a brilliant speech, I can feel his anger and shame at the recent revelations of the house. He also has a vision to return the balance between legislature and executive.

Anonymous said...

Quite a stench coming from that direction today, all those little piggies packing their sty out.

Trying to find a ring leader to speak for them and avoid the abbatoir.

We need guy fawkes now, burn it all down, get rid of the stench, mop up the bacon and start all over again.

Some of them in their speeches even mentioned the word democracy, what a fuckin joke.

I despise every one of them those pigs so out of touch and their to feather their own nests.

Anonymous said...

It must be Shepherd, or Widdy.

No others seem to be clean (with expenses) or true believers in change & transparency, the rest just talk a very good talk.

It will be a shame if neither of those two are chosen.

Anonymous said...

I note that there is a common theme among a number of candidates: let the back-benchers have their voices.

What a fantastic exposure of what REALLY has been happening for the past generation or two.

Vive la Revolution!

Sue said...

Richard Shepherd seems OK! Michael Lord, what a bore!

So far, only possibilities are Anne and Shepherd!

Anonymous said...

Shepherd miles better than Bercow. Bercow was not polished -just oily.

Anonymous said...

Surprisingly strong and serious show from Patrick 'the joker in the pack' Cormack..

Anonymous said...

Dale, I am questioning your judgement. Bercow storming?

Perhaps you should gain an attention span if you can't remember a speech 5 minutes after it finishes.

Anonymous said...

Sir George Young has been the highest claimer of the Additional Costs Allowance for the past 2 years, and sadly he seems to be very likely the winner. He talks a good talk, but can we trust it?

Thats News said...

Live coverage of the Speaker’s Election Hustings

Anonymous said...

Well, that looks like a hundred quid down the drain, Mr Dale..

But luckily Iain can afford it with all his 'media whoring' [TM}

colin said...

"15.27 Apologies. Had to take phone call so missed most of Sir Patrick."

Lucky you- what a windbag!

DMC said...

Iain, If you stand and win a seat at the next election, i could see you becoming speaker.

The role would suit you, you get a big chair, a robe and you can shout at people when you have had a bad day.

Oscar Miller said...

Suspect Beckett may be found hanging from one of her baskets if the House vote for her.

Iain Dale said...

You're not wrong DMC.

Sue said...

Parmjit Dhanda - repeatedly claimed the wrong amount of mortgage on his expenses.

Voted moderately against a transparent government (that's not a good sign).

Anonymous said...

OOoohh !! Dhanda playing the BNP card and mentioning Facebook - think he's lost a lot of the geriatric MP vote.. And mentioning vox pops...

Can't see the MPs rushing for that..

Feel the heat of public opinion ?

'make me continent, but not yet..'

Boo said...

Facebook democracy?
Grief Dhanda, what a mess

Anonymous said...

Dhanda is smart, but he will be seen as a bit too PC by many of the old fart brigade.

Anonymous said...

Look at the man behind Dhanda. He's pissed!

Tells us all!

Anonymous said...

Dhanda's setting out his "I could be a Muslim Tony Blair" stall for a future leadership election.

Unknown said...

Dhanda was a bit bonkers, perhaps, but he was right that the speaker should drive reform. Most of the others sounded far too complacent - that may go down well in the house, but won't outside.

Anonymous said...

Dale - vote for Parmjit Dhanda because of his tie, eh? Shame about the postive descrimination that he implies he wants. How anyone can describe you as a political commentator beats me.

Heidi said...

Dhanda was the only one that remotely understood the nature of the crisis. If any of the other candidates wins, every MP in the House should expect to lose their seat at the next general election.

DMC said...

Since most of them seem to be going on about PR, shpould they not do STV, were they rank the candidates in order of preference and just get it over with quickly.

DMC said...

HaselHurst got the biggest cheer from the MPs.

My favourates, Bercow and Dhanda.

Also can i ask the blog, do they have any predictions on who is going to be knocked out first?

Verity said...

As you know, I would never stoop to making personal comments, but the two best looking contenders are Haselhurst and Danda. The two ugliest are, in order, Beckett and ... uh ... nolo contendere.

Anonymous said...

Isn't about time that we elected a new Top Gear presenter
http://moralorder.mediumisthemess.com/blog

Iain Dale said...

Anonymous 3.39, are you deliberately being a prick? The remark was humorous, but I suppose that would pass by an idiot like you, wouldn't it? I despair.

Whiffler said...

Mansour Bahrami for Speaker.

Anonymous said...

Iain:

Lot of trolls recently. Must be recently prodded into action by the Speaker's election and Omoron's failure to handle the Iranian protest crisis correctly. They're very much on the defensive.

Anonymous said...

Iain, I beg of you, please, no matter what the provocation don't stoop to the gutter level of using the 'p' word - it really is crass and chavvy and beneath you.

Oops, I forgot you were from Essex..

Rob said...

I disagree with your score on Richard Shephard, Iain. I found his speech quite powerful and struck the right tone for me. It's clear how deep his feelings for the house are. Not a good day for Gordon though. All these ingrate would-be speakers wanting to strip him of powers, how very dare they?

Nice clip of Betty eviscerating some poor backbencher in her pomp. Maybe widdecombe would be a good idea as she'd give any errant members a verbal lashing too!

Anonymous said...

I, too, thought that Bercow was a smug, oily little man, Richard Shepherd, passionate and sincere.

(Am I the only person who thinks that Ed Balls has the look of a second-hand car salesman?)

Anonymous said...

Bercow passionate?

Bloody Nora Iain,you have not lived mate.
I have watched more interesting flock wallpaper in an indian restaurant than his speech.

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid I can't understand how Hazelhurst is the right man for the job. He incorrectly said ACA was part of an MP's renumeration, it most certainly shouldn't be ... a slip of a tongue perhaps. But he has been tarred by the expenses stick, his defense was that "everybody has". That's not true. Richard Shepherd has not, and he walks the walk when it comes to transparency. It isn't some bandwagon he gleefully jumped on in the past few weeks.

Anonymous said...

If Bercow is the self-proclaimed 'reform' candidate, why is his note-handler one of the key anti-FoI/expenses hacks, Julian Lewis?

And doesn't the fact that each ballot round takes about 90 minutes, potentially keeping us all up until the 'wee small hours', beautifully symbolise all that is wrong with the running of the present House of Commons?

Svenson Swanson said...

It beats me how anyone can judge a man by his tie. My man-servant claims to have gone to Eton and his 'old school tie' always has soup stains on it (even though he claims to hate the stuff).
http://moralorder.mediumisthemess.com/blog has the low-down.

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