Thursday, September 3, 2009

Nigel Farage to stand against John Bercow at General Election


Dear All

The convention in Parliament is that political parties don’t stand against the Speaker, the Labour, Tories and Lib Dems have signed up to this.

Other parties have not, such as UKIP.

UKIP’s leader is Nigel Farage who has been steadily increasing his public image over the years as an outspoken critic of the European Union. By all accounts he is a good speaker who comes across well in the media.

Mr. Farage has decided to stand against Commons Speaker John Bercow at the next general election, the issue he says is that MPs "have broken the trust" of the British people.

It is true that the expenses scandal has shown that some MPs are unfit for public and of trust but it should be remembered that this doesn’t apply to all.

Nigel Farage has chosen to stand against John Bercow currently the Speaker of the House of Commons as he is "represents the worst" of the Commons.

The task for Mr. Farage to overcome is indeed massive; Bercow sits on a healthy majority of 18,000 in his Buckingham constituency seat.

Mr Farage made his annoucement at UKIP's annual conference in Southport, Merseyside.

So, this contest looks like being a great knock down fight to the finish, with neither side talking prisoners.

As to the challenge; Bercow seems every relaxed and issued this statement;

"I am more than happy to be judged on my track record over 12 years as MP for Buckingham, my continuing commitment to the constituency and my determination to restore faith in Parliament."

And 18,000 votes don’t go a miss either.

Although UKIP is standing against Bercow, this is not the first time that a Speaker has been stood against by a political party. Michael Martin faced a challenge from the Scottish National Party in the 2005 General election; their candidate was John McLaughlin, a seasoned SNP Councillor at Glasgow City Council.

I would suspect that John Bercow won’t be packing up his belongings on election night but this kind of thing makes for an interesting contest.

Finally, in the 2005 election UKIP got 3% of the vote, I think he should play the Les Miserables song; 'I dreamed a dream'.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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