John Bercow dismisses Daily Mail as a 'bigoted comic'"

[oldironside]

"The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has risked his political neutrality by describing the Daily Mail as a "sexist, racist, bigoted, comic cartoon strip".

He also apologised for breaking the trade descriptions act by describing the Mail as a "newspaper".

His stinging remarks came at a question and answer session with the political commentator Steve Richards at Kings Place in London.

Bercow has been repeatedly criticised in the Daily Mail, notably by Quentin Letts, its parliamentary sketch writer. Letts recently described the Speaker as "preening, sycophantic, short-tempered and grotesque".

On another occasion Letts wrote: "Effortless humour is one of the things Squeaker Bercow so palpably lacks. Everything about him, even his wit, is by numbers, worn heavily, as though out of a book."

Bercow's condemnation of the Mail was promoted by his wife Sally who is active on Twitter and is a staunch supporter ofLabour."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jun/07/john-bercow-daily-mail-comments

Well, you nailed it there, John. :fistbump:

[LeftishBrit]

1. John Bercow is right there!

[non sociopath skin]

2. Out of the mouths of babes and speakers ....

:evilgrin:

The Skin

[T_i_B]

3. The Daily Fail's obsessive hatred of Bercow is just plain daft.

I guess the Daily Fail has decided in it's "infinite wisdom" that the Speaker of the House of Commons must be a foaming at the mouth partisan right wing ideologue and nothing else will ever be satisfactory to them.

I think it's also worth reiterating that Quentin Letts is a total fucking moron and the very last person you would ever read if you want an accurate account of parliamentary proceedings.

[LeftishBrit]

4. I agree

But the Daily Fail have an obsessive hatred for almost everything.

And Letts hated Bercow's predecessor Martin with a passion too, giving him the nasty nickname of 'Gorbals Mick'.

Is there a technical word for 'obsessive hatred of Speakers'?

In Bercow's case, there is probably also the additional element that far-right-wingers probably hate a liberal Tory ('traitor') even more than a Labourite. Some of them still haven't stopped foaming at the mouth over Ted Heath. To be fair, I might be said to be the equivalent on the subject of Tony Blair!

[oldironside]

5. And don't get me started...

... on Ramsay MacDonald. :mad:

[T_i_B]

6. Although there was a good deal of snobbery behind Lett's hatred of Speaker Martin...

There were some good reasons to dislike Speaker Martin.

The reasons for the Daily Fail's obsessive hatred of Speaker Bercow however are pretty pathetic. Not being on the right wing of the Tory party (especially for the Speaker of the hopuse of Commons) and not liking a man's wife are really quite idiotic excuses.

[LeftishBrit]

7. I agree that Martin was incompetent in his role...

however the Daily Fail's hatred in general, and the phrase 'Gorbals Mick' in particular, seemed to be based on vicious class (and related regional) hatred.