It Was Like a Mafia Funeral, Pudgy Omerta Boys Sidling Up to Squeeze His Wrists and Whisper a Few Brief Words of Respect ; Quentin Letts On the Disgraced Speaker's Exit [Edition 2]
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Summary
NEARLY nine years of Speakership were soon euthanised. His little act of hara-kiri took just 70 words, 34 seconds, plus the swallowing of decades of flintyeyed ambition. Wrap it in a black bin liner, whoosh, down the chute it goes, a lifetime's ceaseless, snarling, class-driven toil. Exit Gorbals Mick, pursued by... silence.
Michael Martin made his statement at the start of the Commons day, immediately after prayers at 2.30pm. He said: 'I have decided I will relinquish the office of Speaker.'See the full content of this document
Extract
It Was Like a Mafia Funeral, Pudgy Omerta Boys Sidling Up to Squeeze His Wrists and Whisper a Few Brief Words of Respect ; Quentin Letts On the Disgraced Speaker's Exit [Edition 2]
Not a soul groaned. The House heard him with stony imperturbability. No one wailed, 'don't do it!'
Members did not throw themselves at his feet in protest.I did see a Labour woman weeping a few minutes later - Barbara Keeley of Worsley, a Government Whip, wailing like Stan Laurel after being bopped in the nose by Ollie Hardy. Ann McKechin (Lab, Glasgow N) was a bit red round the headlamps, too, but otherwise the House managed to conceal its distres...See the full content of this document
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