The Coalition thought it could sneak through a grotty little bill on the last day of this Parliament. Their motion called for the election of Speaker of the House to be decided by secret balance - for the first time in the history of Parliament. This would mean that they could vote against Speaker Berkow, who favours backbenchers over the bigwigs, without anybody knowing. They hoped that since a lot of Labour MPs had already gone to their constituencies to begin campaigning this last minute move would get through unnoticed and undisputed. Fortunately many backbenchers had other ideas. There were a number of very sharp speeches but one was outstanding. It came from Charles Walker, the Tory chair of the Parliamentary Procedure Committee who said that, despite meeting with William Hague (the proposer of the motion) in the last few days he had been told nothing about this procedural change. 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". This earned him a ovation from backbenchers on both sides of the House - an extremely rare event. Hague's last day in Parliament was one of ignominy (some will say fittingly so) but it was a refreshing final day after five years of so much to complain about in relation to our MPs.
