And another thing…

That’s quite enough of that Mr Harris. We don’t want any of your toilet humour round here.

And…..?

He’d still be better than Beckett. She who charged the taxpayer £11,000 for begonias, hanging baskets and general gardening and then sought to defend it in the most appallingly condescending manner on Question Time.

If anything would send a signal that nothing has or will change, it would be Margaret Beckett in the Speakers Chair.

What the whole farce of electing a new Speaker has highlighted is that ANY candidate from the current Parliament will be suspect. We should have had a General Election and started again with a new Parliament.

But that wouldn’t fit in with Mandleson’s plans, would it.

Other good stories about politicians and toilets include Churchill and Atlee in the Gents at the House of Commons. There had just been a very fierce debate in the chamber. Atlee reached the urinals firs, followed closely by Churchill. Atlee was at the first stall, Churchill ran past him, unzipping as he went to the far end.
“Atlee, ” For Goodness sake, old man, I know it was heated in there, but htere’s no need to avoid me, is there?”

Churchill, “Well, you see, Atlee..(splash, splash) whenever you see anything….(pause to shake).. which is big…buttons up fly….you want to nationalise it!”

Well as long as they were holding their own it’ll be alright.

The Tory’s are having a bit of Gossip over your comment Tom

Since when did Cameron take the Tory whip from Bercow? Never. Bercow is a Tory.

Pete B – only on the ballot paper, otherwise Bercow is a stateless politico who has sucked up to the other parties shamelessly

Pete. Got it in one. Two tories left to fight it out? It looks like Labour backbenchers have had enough of scorched earth politics.

You wanna know a large part of the reason we didn’t want John?

Look at at Ed Balls face when Bercow gets to the chair, truly UNBEARABLE!

….and GB taking the piss…even more unbearable!

Is this a toilet room rumour or is it actually true?

Cast your eyes (nothing else please, not tonight) over the ‘And Another Thing’ archives and yez will find that some of the more prescient of us predicted this a long time ago, long time, I love you long time…

Ooops. No. wrong script. Maybe.

Yes and so am I – what a pathetic and shameful charade.

Jonathan Calder’s comment is good:

“What John Bercow’s victory tells us about the Labour Party

Most Labour MPs would rather vote for a former secretary of the Monday club’s immigration and repatriation committee than for an Old Etonian.”

http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/

Perhaps its just that you can never be a former Old Etonian

Michael Crick on Newsnight is also reporting this – only several hours late.

Just seen Burcow speaking for the first time. came over to me as a first class pratt.

I wanted Margaret Beckett to be elected as speaker!

Every saint a past, every sinner a future.

As long as he’s legal, decent, honest and true!

And hopefully he’ll remember to bring “forth out of his treasure things new and old”.

Babies and bathwater we do not need.

i heard that mr. bercow had been in the toilets before that….apparently one of the pans was blocked and he knows someone who can unblock anything at a cost of 1000 gbp…and u dont have to pay for it either…the british taxpayer will pay instead…

what a con…do you think if i tried to avoid capital gains tax and then paid it back they will promote me too?

on a final note tom i need me accounts doing any chance of you asking john bercow if he can get them done for me…on the taxpayer of course?

how do you mp’s get away with it?

we all need to know really we do because i am skint right now….chances are i am going to lose my job and the taxpayer says i have to pay all my tax or i could go to jail.

u lot are having a laugh at our ‘expenses’!

A bit of toilet humour – excellent. I would only be able to talk about voting Tory if I was taking a piss…

haha i heard this on the news before, i think it was Jon Sopel from BBC News mentioned it.

Well, it’s started well. Already have a spat on radio 4. Half the house can’t abide the latest speaker and are pretty vocal about it.

Is this all some machiavellian plot by MP’s to make the standing in the commons as low as possible so that, one day in the future, a saviour can be found ?

Obaaaaaaama Beach.

Tom..you said you were going to nominate Parmjit Dhanda though not vote for him. What did you make of his speech? Personally I was quite surprised at how good he was. He was actually really quite good which pleased me. Definitely makes him a rising star…

Triffid100: “Half the house can’t abide the latest speaker and are pretty vocal about it.”

Well, no actually. The only ones throwing a hiissy fit are (some of) the Tories, and in total they make up less than a third of the Commons.

Shame on all the Labour MPs who selflishly voted for a Tory, despite it being the Tories’ turn to have a speaker. Oh, hang on? All the hubbub is ridiculous. He will be impartial or he will be kicked out, he won’t be a Labour stooge or he’ll be out in a year or two, and I suspect he wants to be the longest serving speaker of recent history. This spoof sums it up:

Tories furious as Tory elected new Commons Speaker: http://bit.ly/xgpqg

Tom said: “Well, no actually. The only ones throwing a hiissy fit are (some of) the Tories, and in total they make up less than a third of the Commons”

I stand corrected. OK, a third of the Commons this year, half next …

My personal favourite was when Keir Hardie, on his first day in the House approached the (wonderfully superior) FE Smith to ask where the toilets were.

“If you take that passage on the left, it is the second doot on the right. It says ‘Gentlemen’ on the door, but don’t let that deter you.”

Alternatively, try googling Winston Churchill and the Lord Privy Seal…