Turncoat Labour and Tory MPs should resign

A number of Labour and Tory MPs have decided that their own political interests would be best served by swapping horses in midstream.

However, people who voted for them at the general election did not vote for their original party, only to find themselves with an MP for a different party. Therefore it is a matter of honour that they should have resigned if they are to take up a new banner. It is cheating their voters to do otherwise and a shameful act of double-dealing.

But none of these MPs ever did this and so we are left with a large number of voters who backed one party and find themselves lumbered with another one. It is a disgrace that voters should have been ignored in this shameful way but MPs are too self-centred to realise what they are doing.

One day, this may alter, but I would not put my life savings on it.

l The ludicrous idea that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn might take over as a sort of interim prime minister to sort out the shambles of Brexit seem to have faded as quickly as they arose.

No-one, except for a number of diehard Labour backbenchers, wanted this to happen and now it almost certainly won’t happen.

Both Boris Johnson and the Irish prime minister appear to be more optimistic about a solution to the backstop problem, a sign that something may be happening, typically, at the last moment. It is now up to the politicians to get their act together — no easy task — if this whole farcical situation is to be brought to a sensible solution.

It is not beyond reason that this should happen, but politicians will have to stop behaving like fourth-form schoolboys if they are to achieve any kind of progress to enable them to use their time on more useful policies.

The situation now suggests a general election sooner rather than later. Mr Johnson appears to have the advantage over Labour but he will have to be careful not to make the same mistake as his predecessor, Theresa May, and be too casual about the whole affair.

l Few tears will be shed — except for crocodile tears — when Commons Speaker John Bercow finally quits the job. He has clung on to it like a barnacle for years now. Many MPs, particularly Conservatives, believe he was the worst Speaker there ever was.

He built up feuds with some MPs and, apparently, favouritism among some others. No-one, it seems, will be sorry to see him go.

A number of hopefuls have thrown their hats into the ring, including his deputy, Lindsay Hoyle. It would have done Mr Bercow a good to have listened to the way his number two operated in the chair, but no-one wants to take advice from his deputy, do they?

Mr Bercow has proved less than fair-minded over some issues and has expressed views on, for instance, US President Donald Trump, which no Speaker should have uttered. Parliament will be entering a “brave new era” when we see him bite the dust.

l The Duke of Edinburgh is 98 and still providing the nation with as much fun and laughter as he always has done. To suggest that he is laden with gaffes and is just being rude about people is the province of those who have lost their sense of humour.

In this respect, Philip derives more laughter and goodwill from British people than the rest of the royal family put together. That is not to say I do not admire them and the way they carry out their often arduous duties. But the duke provides a much-needed smile when British politics is in disarray.

One story about him is that a reporter was once challenged by a colleague to use the term ‘Phil the Greek’ in a report he was making from the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference in Cyprus. This he cleverly did by writing: “The people have had their fill ... The Greek government, meanwhile ...”

The reporter won his bet and no doubt the duke found it as amusing as the rest of Fleet Street.