No-One Prepared to Speak Up for Speaker ; Here Was a Case to Be Made for Mr Speaker Martin, but I Am Not Going to Make It. After All, Why Should I, If He Couldn't Make It for Himself? Michael Martin Was Never Much Good at Public Speaking and It Was His Misfortune His Chief Supporter Sir Stuart Bell Mp Is No Great Shakes at It Either.

Western Morning News, The › May 21, 2009

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Summary

Here was a case to be made for Mr Speaker Martin, but I am not going to make it. After all, why should I, if he couldn't make it for himself? Michael Martin was never much good at public speaking and it was his misfortune his chief supporter Sir Stuart Bell MP is no great shakes at it either.

But it was far worse than that. Asked by Douglas Carswell MP why his motion for the Speaker's removal had not been listed for debate, the Speaker didn't know. Even when his own clerks tried to explain it to him, it took him several attempts to get the words out, and even then he got it wrong.

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Extract

No-One Prepared to Speak Up for Speaker ; Here Was a Case to Be Made for Mr Speaker Martin, but I Am Not Going to Make It. After All, Why Should I, If He Couldn't Make It for Himself? Michael Martin Was Never Much Good at Public Speaking and It Was His Misfortune His Chief Supporter Sir Stuart Bell Mp Is No Great Shakes at It Either.

It's nearly 10 years since I was in the Commons, but I know the answer. Substantive motions have to be tabled by the Government. What can you say in favour of a Speaker who did not know that already? And what can you say of a Speaker who, on the very day that his Parliamentary life was on the lin...

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