Speaker of the House calls for more women and minorities in senior positions
7:00am Friday 28th September 2012 in News By Rachel Bishop
The speaker of the House of Commons wants more women and ethnic minorities in higher positions in the house.
John Bercow spoke to members of U3A, at Clarendon Hall, York House, Twickenham on Wednesday, September 26, as part of the Parliamentary Outreach Programme.
Prior to the meeting Mr Bercow spoke to the Richmond and Twickenham Times about his ideas for house reform and what he intended to do within his role as speaker.
He said: “We need a change to the expenses system and to reform the operations of the house.
“We ought to have greater transparency. It shouldn’t just be a committee made up of members of the House of Commons who have a say.
“I would like to see more women and ethnic minorities within the house.
“In terms of staffing of the house we have some, but this is generally in catering and cleaning.”
The speaker is expected to be a "referee" or "umpire" within his or her chamber, not a partisan political figure who controls the flow of legislation in the manner
Mr Bercow finished by saying: “I don’t agree with being satisfied. I still think there is quite a lot to be done. Being too satisfied can lead to self satisfaction and that can lead to complacency.”
He did add that he thought staff at those did a fantastic job though.
Mr Bercow said he thought U3A was a fantastic network and has given many speeches to other groups under the network’s umbrella around the country.
Comments(5)
metis
says...
8:53pm Fri 28 Sep 12
Twickenham resident
says...
8:09pm Sat 29 Sep 12
I wouldn't want to get a job just because I was a woman, an ethnic minority or disabled. I wouldn't feel I deserved it if it was just to make up numbers and tick a box.
Perhaps women and some ethnic miniorities see the behaviour in the House of Commons and actually don't find it a very attractive place to work!
lucullus
says...
9:17pm Sat 29 Sep 12
metis
says...
4:11pm Mon 1 Oct 12
PhillipTaylor says...
2:43pm Fri 28 Sep 12
The points he made about reform in his speech as part of the excellent Parliamentary Outreach Programme are very well placed.
The business of Parliament itself has long been completely unintelligible to the majority of the electorate and Mr Bercow should be praised for what he is doing as Speaker to modernise and reform practices in the teeth of retrenched opposition on all sides of the House.
The only real way to deal with the composition of the House of Commons is to re-consider how political parties are funded because the original concept of Parliament's membership being a reflection of a cross section of the British people is woefully inadequate today because of the cost of standing for Parliament and actually doing the job.
Phillip Taylor