The Go Between - John Bercow

Since Mr John Bercow was elected Speaker by Parliament in the wake of the expenses scandal, he has been fighting to make it a better place.

This has meant spending a lot of time combating the bad habits of members. So far a number of MPs have felt the sharp end of the Speaker's tongue:

'Order. There is far too much shouting in the Chamber and the Secretary of State for Education should not be shouting his head off — it is a very bad example to set to the nation’s schoolchildren'

- Mr Bercow rebuking the education minister, Mr Michael Gove.

'Order! I say to the Children's Minister, try to calm down and behave like an adult; and if you can't, if it's beyond you, leave the chamber, get out, we'll manage without you... no it's not funny, only in your mind, Mr Loughton is it funny. It's not funny at all, it's disgraceful'

- Mr Bercow rebuking the Children's Minister, Mr Tim Loughton.

Speaker Bercow isn't alone in his appreciation of the need to clean up Parliament's behaviour (Hodder, 2011), nor do the Speaker's attempts to clean up Britain's political sphere end at the door to the Palace of Westminster. In interviews he has been outspoken against certain media establishments and their comments, amongst others, on how his wife ought to act due to his role as speaker:

'I think there is a good deal of old-fashioned chauvinism. The notion that somehow my wife has got a duty either to agree with me or to say nothing. My wife is an independent person, she's entitled to her own views'

-Mr Bercow comments on attempts by critics to 'attack him through his wife'.

From the Speaker's lectures (BBC, 2011) celebrating the centenary of the Parliament Act to hosting President Obama, who spoke at Westminster Hall earlier this year; Speaker Bercow is steadily trying to manage Parliament's identity towards positive goals through celebrations of its heritage, rather than just swatting bad behaviour as it rears its ugly head.

When our ancestors reined in monarchs through control of taxation and budgets, and Responsible Government became a reality, the Speaker became a powerful political figure as Parliament's representative to the king. Around the empire, Speakers became important voices for democracy, such as Louis-Joseph Papineau in Canada.

In those days it would be the Speaker's job to rally parliamentarians to challenge & restrain the excesses of the executive. With the advent of responsible government and a virtually powerless monarch, the Speaker has been increasingly required to focus upon improving the reputation and perceived image of Parliament, to clean up the public image of how a government conducts its business.

The 'character' of a leader or leadership institution in itself is not enough for legitimate governance, but it can serve to improve the confidence of stakeholders in the arguments and decisions being made within those institutions - generating trust through accountability and transparency.

Reicher and Haslam (2007) had three propositions about the nature of leadership:

• Proposition 1: The emergence of leadership is related to the development of a shared social identity.
• Proposition 2: Leadership serves to facilitate the development of shared social identity.
• Proposition 3: The success of leaders relates (i) to their ability to convince others to accept their proposals as valid expressions of group identity, and (ii) to their ability to create a social reality which corresponds to their definition of social identity.

Mr Bercow's job has been to drive Parliament towards a reform of its identity, not just to change the outward perception of Parliament, but to change Parliament's perception of itself. This has meant strenuous efforts to promote parliamentary scrutiny, respect for procedure and working hard to reform what it means to be a public delegate; sometimes in the face of an abject flaunting of the rules of conduct pertaining to members (BBC, 2011).

For more on Mr John Bercow, see the BBC's 'The John Bercow story' & Prospect Magazine's 'Getting the House in order. For more on Reicher & Haslam's research take a look at wikipedia's page on BBC's 'The Experiment'.

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References:
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+ Hodder Education, 'Parliament and Politics: A study in how not to debate'; 6 July 2011.

+ BBC Democracy Live, 'Speaker's lectures: Centenary of the Parliament Act'; 2011.

+ Steve Reicher & S.Alexander Haslam's 'Identity entrepreneurship and the consequences of identity failure: The dynamics of leadership in the BBC Prison Study'; in Social Psychology Quarterly, 70, 125-147; 2007.

+ BBC's 'Defence Secretary Liam Fox quits'; 14 October 2011.