My new political muse

[Denzil_DC]

8. As Celerity says in the reply below, he ended up on the left of the Tory Party

before being elected Speaker by members of the House of Commons.

The HoC Speaker is an odd role. It's supposed to alternate between members of the two major parties, though there are no term limits, which is what Bercow means when he refers to being re-elected repeatedly by the MPs in each Parliament.

Speakers are MPs, but by convention other parties usually don't run against them in their seats, though Bercow's faced challenges from UKIP, a Green and an independent in the last two general elections.

He takes his constitutional role seriously, hasn't always got things right, but has grown in stature (and as a hate figure among the Tories) since the Brexit vote, not least because May and her cronies have done so much in the way of stripping Parliament of its traditional oversight role and grasping unprecedentedly wide-ranging powers.