The popular saying states that “politics is a dirty game” proves accurate as politicians consistently perform twists and turn in their political careers to stay relevant. To a lot of people, politics is one profession that strives without any regard to honesty and truth. Thus, every political move by a politician is a calculated and informed decision that is usually done to benefit the politician or the political party.
John Bercow becomes the latest politician who has made an unforeseen decision by switching political sides. Whether this ‘switch’ is a politically motivated or a vengeful act, only him and his peers know better.
Mr. John Bercow (58) is one of the most influential British politicians in the present day. In his early political days, he was a Conservative Party member in the United Kingdom (UK). The Conservative Party is one of the major political parties in the UK, which has been in government since 2010, with a lot of parliamentary representation of about 364 members (MPs). The official name is Conservative and Union Party and popularly referred to as the Tories, Tory Party, or the Conservatives. The party’s current leader is the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and it was founded in December 1934, which makes it about 186 years old.
This party is built on the principles and ideologies of Conservatism, Economic Liberalism, and British Unionism. John Bercow became a Member of Parliament for Buckingham in May 1997 up to 4 November 2019 under the Conservative Party. He became speaker of the House of Commons (the lower course and primary chamber of the UK parliament) of the UK parliament on 22 June 2009 up to 4 November 2019. He was the first Jewish parliament speaker [Source]. It is mandated that the speaker of parliament should not be aligned to a political party, so when he was selected speaker, he resigned from the Conservative Party to become a neutral speaker.
In 2015 an attempt to oust him as speaker was made by the house leader, then William Hague, and chief whip Michael Gove. It was reported that some Tory MPs had engineered the plan to remove Bercow, but they lost the elections 228 votes to 202. Most Labour MPs despised the decision to unseat the parliament speaker, and Bercow survived to see another day as the speaker of the UK parliament [Source].
Image via Wikimedia is licensed with CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Mr. John Bercow stepped down as UK parliament speaker after 10 years on the high chair. He had faced various shots for being unfair and giving certain privileges to other parliamentarians. He was mainly attacked for his attitude during Brexit because it seems he was against Brexit and tried to block it with some of his parliamentary decisions. He denied all these allegations laid against his conduct in parliament and argued that he was upholding the core values of the House of Commons. After stepping down as the speaker, he did not seek to be re-elected as MP [Source].
And now he has joined the Labour Party, a political move which no one, even his political counterparts, expected. This a political party that has been in existence for over 100 years. It operates using social democracy and democratic socialism as its core ideologies. It is not unusual for politicians to change parties and even join a completely different party that believes in values that are not similar to one’s previous party. Bercow, by becoming a Labour Party member, has joined a parallel terrain from his former party.
He has already started launching attacks against his former house and stated that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is a “lousy governor.” He also uttered that the present government needs to be changed, and the Labour Party is the perfect replacement. He has faith in the Labour Party to remove the Conservative rule. Bercow believes that Johnson has no intention of improving the lives of the poor people, and this why Johnson has been giving “empty promises” and “useless slogans” to the citizens. In joining the ‘opposition party, Bercow argued that he wants to be part of a social change, social justice, and equity oriented-party that will ensure equality in the UK. Other Labour Party members have welcomed him with open arms and are looking forward to working with him in instilling ‘social justice and equality in the UK’ [Source].
Since Mr. John Bercow is now playing for a different team, it is expected that the scores against his former Conservative’ club’, hence the immediate scores of attacks against Boris Johnson’s governance. The Labour Party has gained a significant player, and the Conservatives might have to live with the pain of Bercow’s political jab on them.
