Speaker Bercow and Speaker Hoyle: a comparison

John Bercow was regularly lambasted for being an overmighty, biased and interfering Speaker, especially by the Conservative Party and their supporters in the press. It was thought that the advent of the more affable and modest Lindsay Hoyle heralded a change. But affable does not necessarily mean accommodating, as the government is discovering. In recent days, the Speaker has twice reproved the executive, over its refusal to grant a debate over international aid, and for its communicating the latest coronavirus decisions to the media before it let Parliament know. So perhaps the problem was always the government, whether under May or Johnson, not the Speaker. And perhaps Bercow has changed the role of the Speaker permanently, a transformation from the days of Speakers Thomas, Weatherall, Boothroyd and Martin. But the legislature needs more bulwarks against the overweening pretensions of the exercutive : one of those things that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed all too clearly.