Sharpe's Opinion
Wednesday, 17th Jun, 2009
Coffee House reckon Margaret Beckett may have the Speakership in the bag. That would, of course, leave me living in the safest Labour seat in the country.
I can’t say I’m too pleased with that particular turn of events.
Comments
You’re technically right, of course, she’d be an independent, but with somebody as partisan as Ms Beckett I’d find it hard to see her as anything other than still Labour-at-heart.
Which is fair enough, really, since Derby is still a strongly Labour-at-heart area.
As for running as a ‘clean hands’ candidate, there’s novelty and amusement value in the idea, so thank you 
It would, however, be a fairly pointless escapade, methinks, since I’m not what you would call parliamentary material. Which is to say I don’t think they let people in the Commons chamber who are wearing jeans and a tee shirt… 
Yes, but what a message. Voters reject the Speaker – the Speaker – in favour of a clean hands candidate. Talk about a giant killing.
You’d change British politics forever. You’d be in history books.
You might even be able to change the Commons dress code.
Actually, no. If she becomes Speaker, she ceases to be a Labour MP and becomes an Independent “servant of the House”.
Which means the other Parliamentary parties won’t even put up a candidate against her, so it might makes things a bit more interesting—fancy running as a “clean hands” candidate? It’d be you vs her with no other main party involved.
MatGB
June 17, 2009 at 10:13 pm