John Bercow

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John Simon Bercow (born January 19, 1963), is a politician, and Conservative Member of Parliament for Buckingham.

A career politician, he was briefly Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, under Iain Duncan Smith, but resigned in protest at Conservative MPs being 'whipped' to oppose a Bill that would allow unmarried couples to adopt children. He had previously said that "there was a powerful case" for the introduction of same-sex marriages in the UK, and in October 2003, attacked Duncan Smith at the Conservative Party Conference.

1 Monday Club and University Politics
2 Federation of Conservative Students
3 Political career
4 External links

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Monday Club and University Politics

The son of a Jewish mini-cab driver from London's East End, Bercow attended a comprehensive school. Starting out as an ultra-Right winger, and close friend of K Harvey Proctor, he rose to be Secretary (1981-82) of the Immigration and Repatriation Committee of the Conservative Monday Club, and also stood as a candidate for their National Executive on a platform of supporting repatriation of non-white immigrants, making a speech to that effect at the Club's anti-immigration rally at Westminster Central Hall.

He was Treasurer and Chairman of the University of Essex Conservative Association and proposed a radical anti-CND motion at the Student Union debate, and asked Conservative Central Office employee Julian Lewis to come to the university to attack CND. He also invited Monday Club MP, Teddy Taylor, to speak at a campus meeting, which met with considerable opposition from the Socialist Workers Party who had an active cell there. He next invited Cecil Parkinson, MP, and again major disturbances followed, with Parkinson being unable to enter the university. A contributor of articles to the Monday Club's magazine Monday World, the National Union of Students denounced him for being a member and condemned his articles. He left the Monday Club about 1986.

During university debates he made a number of anti-feminist speeches, and was well-known for puring scorn on left-wing groups, such as Gay and Lesbian Society. In one incident a radical feminist Student Union officer poured beer over Bercow's head. In 1984 he rose and spoke at the Essex Student Union Annual General Meeting, denouncing the visiting National Union of Mineworkers member. The NUM Speaker told Bercow to "sod off back to fascist land". As an MP, Bercow has made several speeches and published a number articles promoting equality. These include - an article addressing the gender pay gap in the Financial Times in June 2003 and another arguing for positive discrimination for women in the Tory Party, published in The Independent in January 2003.

Bercow subsequently denounced the Monday Club in the run-up to the Conservative Party's 'suspension' of it in October 2001. At a Monday Club Annual General Meeting in April 2002, a motion was tabled calling for the parliamentary sacking of [their former member] John Bercow, then shadow Chief Secretary, for his "hypocrisy". It was not carried. (Refer: The Independent, 18th May 2002). However, it did not end there as the Daily Mail (27th June) reported that at a reception held a few nights previous former Monday Club Chairman Sam Swerling had confronted Bercow about his denunciations of the Club and had "invited him outside for 'a good thumping'".

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Federation of Conservative Students

Bercow was a member of the Federation of Conservative Students, (FCS), and took part in their infamous Loughborough Conference, described on the front page of The Sun newspaper as 100 Tory Yobs on the Rampage. He subsequently took part in the FCS's Edinburgh conference, and called repeatedly for the coal industry to be sold off to the private sector. He was a supporter of extreme free-market economics and praised the Adam Smith Institute.

After appearing in a 1986 edition of The Guardian, with his picture placed alongside that of BNP leader John Tyndall, Bercow decided to change political horses and began to distance himself from his former colleagues, helping to run the Conservative Central office crackdown on the FCS.

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Political career

Bercow was instrumental in setting up the short-lived Conservative Collegiate Forum. During the 1990s he worked as a research assistant for MPs Virginia Bottomley and Jonathan Aitken, although he appears to have distanced himself during the latter's troubles.

Following his conversion to an ultra Thatcherite libertarian, he stood twice for Parliament (includes Bristol) before securing the ultra-safe seat of Buckingham. Newspapers were very fond of noting the fact that he flamboyantly arrived at his Buckingham selection meeting by a chartered helicopter. (He argued that there had been another selection meeting somewhere else on the same day, and travelling my helicopter was the only way he could make it to both).

Once in Parliament, he initially revelled in his new-found reputation as a Conservative rottweiler, opposing the equalisation of the age of consent for gays and other legislation. However he subsequently became an ardent supporter of Michael Portillo, whom he said was "the only answer to the Conservative Party's failures and marginalisation", and started making pro-gay rights speeches.

During a BBC Newsnight programme, Bercow, who had previously been opposed to the EU, said that he did not rule out serving under pro-EU, Kenneth Clarke. But upon Portillo's defeat in the Conservative leadership election, Bercow switched his allegiance to Iain Duncan-Smith.

Mark Seddon stood for the Labour Party against Bercow at the 2001 General Election. 23-year-old Luke Croydon, President of Liberal Democrats Youth and Students, is Bercow's current Lib-Dem 'shadow' in parliament.

Michael Howard made him Shadow Secretary of State for International Development in September 2003; however he was dropped from this position in a reshuffle in September 2004.

In 2003 he married a Labour supporter, effectively scotching ill-founded rumours that he was gay but leading to speculation that he would defect to Labour. He is noted for his modest stature and Labour MP Lorna FitzSimons (Slough) has ridiculed him over this.

He has addressed Oxford University Conservative Association on several occasions, amusing them with his hilarious and tellingly accurate impersonations of British political figures from John Enoch Powell to Tony Benn. He has a talent for memorizing famous political orations.

In 2005, he reverted form again and backed Kenneth Clarke's unsuccessful leadership bid, before transferring his support to David Cameron.

Also in 2005, he published a pamphlet calling for a market approach to immigration and a humanitarian approach to asylum policy.

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