Here is what one of the 23 rebel Tory MPs said about William Hague trying to change the way the Speaker of the House is voted for – secretly instead of transparently:
“In a tearful speech, Tory MP Charles Walker, chairman of the Commons procedure committee, claimed he had been “played for a fool” by ministers over the issue.
Mr Walker said he had attended Mr Hague’s leaving drinks this week, spending 20 minutes saying goodbye to his special adviser and speaking to Deputy Commons Leader Tom Brake and Chief Whip Michael Gove, “all of whom would have been aware of what was going on”.
He said: “I have been played as a fool and when I go home tonight I will look in the mirror and see an honourable fool looking back at me and I would much rather be an honourable fool in this and any other matter than a clever man.
Labour MPs got to their feet and gave the Tory MP a round of applause – something that is not supposed to happen under Commons rules.”
…Labour’s shadow commons leader Angela Eagle said Mr Hague should be “ashamed of himself” for “going along” with what she claimed was a plot by David Cameron to get rid of Mr Bercow.
“It is a petty and spiteful act because he hates his government being properly scrutinised thanks to this reforming Speaker,” she told MPs.
In a statement, she added: “This is a humiliating defeat for David Cameron on the last day of this Parliament. Instead of talking about ways to improve the lives of working people, in the last week all the prime minister has done is play petty partisan games and arrogantly talk about his retirement plans. In today’s vote decency and democracy prevailed.”
East Devon Watch 
I write frequently to my MP, in fact to a number of MPs and the sad fact is that not a single one of them will ever read my “offering” .
They are filtered, an automatic email is generated to assure me that they are “taking note” before my concerns are all consigned to the Westminster bin of “contempt for the electorate.”
I had a reply from Hague’s office this afternoon to say that no reply would be forthcoming because I didn’t live in Richmond.
Presumably my opinion of Hagues underhand attempt to get rid of the speaker wasn’t relevant
Much the same happens with silver spoon Swire , auto generation of email then……….. Nothing .
There is a pattern here which we should all rebel against. The old boy network needs to be dismantled and the three major parties, whipped into line for every vote, kicked into touch and replaced by local representatives with local issues in their hearts.
Vote independent in May. They all need to know that career politicians are against the public interest.
I watched Milliband trying to answer a schoolboy’s question about his real life experience recently. He did not have a clue , nor did he appear to have any experience outside politics! Cameron is a PR man who can only communicate in boring, predictable PR sound bites and nothing else, Clegg…… will probably lose his seat .
The only up side is that there will be another coalition, and therefore logically some reigning in of the “major” party …
Whoever will it be? We can be sure that over the next few weeks , it won’t be about what “we” are going to do , it will be as much about trashing the opposition. Will they ever learn? Probably not.
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