Speaker Bercow: My hero Mandela

Paul Waugh has a detail-packed account of John Bercow’s first attempt to spread the good news about Parliament beyond Westminster. He visited Lilian Baylis School in Vauxhall – the one Oliver Letwin said he would rather beg on the streets than send his children to – to speak to pupils. Two things jumped out from Paul’s account.

First, his admission that his fate in the hands of others: “The people who elected me are the bosses. If I do a good job, they might put up with me for some time to come. If I don’t, and it’s absolutely right that they have control, they may say ‘we don’t want him’.”

Second, his enthusiasm for Nelson Mandela, which will delight those who remember his student days. “In an earlier, private session with younger pupils at their assembly, the Speaker was challenged why there weren’t more black MPs. He accepted the point but said that his own personal role model was Nelson Mandela as “probably the greatest figure of the 20th century…particularly for his lack of bitterness at how he had been treated”.

The detailed account here is well worth a read.