My 7 year old nephew was very excited by the election campaign “is it true” he asked “have the Conservatories won?”. Not quite but it was certainly “conservatory” weather for the Horsham Hospital Fete on Saturday and a pleasure to meet Fete Chairman, Geoff Pearce and his volunteers who put on a great eventThe fete was opened by Lucy Wood. Lucy is our local Hockey Silver Medalist from the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Glasgow’s Opening Ceremony was only last July and all the Home Nation teams were given a massive welcome by the Scottish crowd. Among the new arrivals at Westminster last week were the new SNP MPs who according to press reports were “jostling for position” on the Opposition Benches. I am determined to strike as good a relationship with these new colleagues as is possible. There is clearly change in the air on our constitutional settlement. We need solutions that are fair to both Scottish aspirations but also to all the other home nations. However as someone who believes that we are greater together and who finds narrow nationalism demeaning I hope we can win over some of the hearts, if not the minds, of the Scots Nats.
The first task of any new parliament is to elect a Speaker. Originally the Speaker wasn’t expected to call members by name but simply looked meaningfully at who he wished to speak next. The House though once elected a Speaker with a pronounced squint and the resultant confusion forced his successors to learn the names of every MP. John Bercow, who was re-elected on Monday is unafraid of provoking controversy in the way he executes the role. However he is both an assiduous constituency MP and has, which is less well known, a self-deprecating wit. The Speaker is a big personality but not a particularly tall man. He is fond of reporting that at least seven of his predecessors were both more controversial and ended up shorter than him – that being number beheaded! For all the rough and tumble of modern politics it has happily moved on!