Commons Speaker John Bercow is alleged to have called Tory Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom a ‘stupid woman‘ and ‘f***ing useless‘. There is a significant Tory faction that would like to see Bercow replaced as Speaker by someone less inclined to rebuke and curtail their rancid and often thuggish behaviour in the Chamber, so there is a perceptible effort to talk up the outrage at Bercow’s remarks.
Bercow’s use of ‘woman’ might be sexist, depending on context, but it’s not necessarily easy to argue with his other points. Ms Leadsom, the target of the alleged comments, has not exactly impressed with her intelligence or competence.
Last summer, Ms Leadsom was the subject of much amusement when, while speaking in the Chamber, she called Jane Austen – who had died two centuries before – one of ‘our greatest living authors’:
The error resulted in a well-earned social media trolling by bookshop Waterstones:
When challenged about the government’s Brexit incompetence and the state of the country under shambolic Tory government, she complained that broadcasters weren’t being ‘patriotic’ enough – clearly happy to conflate patriotism with unquestioning acceptance of Tory performance and a determination to ignore the obvious:
When the Tories were challenged, during last year’s General Election campaign, on their woeful record on air quality and the cost in health and lives, Ms Leadsom ran for cover – cancelling an appearance on the BBC to debate the issue:
And those are just the aspects of her performance that the SKWAWKBOX has specifically covered.
Of course, Andrea Leadsom’s performance and track record, on the campaign trail and elsewhere, pales next to that of her party’s leader. But we don’t have Speaker Bercow’s thoughts on Theresa May, so we’ll just leave this here.
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