During an internship placement in Parliament, I was given chance to meet up with and interview the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, who also happens to be an former University of Essex student and one of our most prestigious alumni.
Bercow was a Conservative MP from the Thatcher years to 2009, when he successfully won his campaign to become the Speaker of the House. In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university. Legendary lecturer Anthony King, who has been at the university since 1969, recalled Bercow’s days here, saying “When he was a student here, he was very right-wing, pretty stroppy, and very good. He was an outstanding student”. I used this opportunity to talk to him about his time at Essex.
Why did you apply to the University of Essex?
I knew somebody already there and I went to see him, he became an academic, and in fact, he is now back at Essex, Professor Shamit Sagar, I’ve known [him] since we were 5 years old. I saw the place and heard about his government course and was inspired. I was very conscious of just how strong Essex was then and certainly is now, in social sciences generally, and government in particular. I did Government and I loved it, absolutely loved it. And some of my teachers were Anthony King, Ivor Crewe, Michael Freeman, Dave MacKay, David Sanders and various other people. Shamit was having a great time there, I thought it looked fantastic and heard very good reports on the course, class tutors, lecturers, and I thought this going to be great and I loved it.
You were a prominent member of the ultra-conservative “Monday Club” in your university days, but over the years you shifted more and more to the centre/left, why was this?
I think that over a period you mature, I think that when I was young I was kind of rabid. I had a misplaced idea that the country was threatened by immigration which over a period of years I came to realise it was not so, I was wrong and also the Monday Club contained some pretty unpleasant people and I resigned from it in February 1984.
Why did I move more towards the centre over the years? (he asks himself)
I think I was influenced by a number of things, I was influenced by the fact that my party kept losing elections …there was no point blaming the electorate; [we have] got to ask ourselves why we keep losing. I was influenced also by reconsideration of the period when we were in government. Yes, we had good things to our credit but here there were serious problems, there were terrible [problems] besetting inner cities, there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and there were serious weaknesses in the funding of our public services. I was also influenced a bit over the years by the equality, racial, LGBT, [and] gender equality. The views I previously had were no longer appropriate or right but I never wanted to be a member of any other party. But that sort of rabid right wingery which had characterised in my early years struck as anachronistic and wrong
Representation remains a problem in parliament, what can you do to diversity and for parliament to reflect the British population?
I don’t think there is a great deal that the speaker can do, the speaker can be fair in ensuring that women, [who] are generally better behaved, get a decent opportunity to speak. Ensuring, of course, that ethnic minorities, LGBT, disabled MP’s also have absolute equal and fair rights to contribute.
We did develop through [the] Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary Representation, acceptance from government that we need to do more to help disabled candidates. There was the Access to Elected Office Fund created, to try and help candidates with disabilities. But the main responsibility lies frankly on the political parties to make sure they do more to encourage and bring on women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT candidates. I think there has been a big improvement but we’ve still only got 22% of women when they make up 52% of the population, and I think we still need to do more to reach out to our ethnic minority communities by all the major parties. To try and forge a link and ask them ‘would you like to serve as an MP, do you think you can make a difference’ etc .
Any finally, do you have any tales of mischief at university?
One day in the student bar, a left-wing activist irritably came up behind me and poured a pint of beer over my head, so I became beer soaked by somebody else. Did I engage in any dubious practice or anything? No I don’t think so. But I had a lot of fun, I enjoyed debating in the Students’ Union. The University incredibly generously awarded me an Honorary Doctorate in 2010.
Bercow continues to maintain a strong relationship with University and plans on coming back sometime this year to celebrate its 50th anniversary year.
The Sunday Times
Exclusive: Commons Speaker John Bercow | The Rabbit Newspaper
During an internship placement in Parliament, I was given chance to meet up with and interview the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, who also happens to be an former University of Essex student and one of our most prestigious alumni.
Bercow was a Conservative MP from the Thatcher years to 2009, when he successfully won his campaign to become the Speaker of the House. In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university. Legendary lecturer Anthony King, who has been at the university since 1969, recalled Bercow’s days here, saying “When he was a student here, he was very right-wing, pretty stroppy, and very good. He was an outstanding student”. I used this opportunity to talk to him about his time at Essex.
Why did you apply to the University of Essex?
I knew somebody already there and I went to see him, he became an academic, and in fact, he is now back at Essex, Professor Shamit Sagar, I’ve known [him] since we were 5 years old. I saw the place and heard about his government course and was inspired. I was very conscious of just how strong Essex was then and certainly is now, in social sciences generally, and government in particular. I did Government and I loved it, absolutely loved it. And some of my teachers were Anthony King, Ivor Crewe, Michael Freeman, Dave MacKay, David Sanders and various other people. Shamit was having a great time there, I thought it looked fantastic and heard very good reports on the course, class tutors, lecturers, and I thought this going to be great and I loved it.
You were a prominent member of the ultra-conservative “Monday Club” in your university days, but over the years you shifted more and more to the centre/left, why was this?
I think that over a period you mature, I think that when I was young I was kind of rabid. I had a misplaced idea that the country was threatened by immigration which over a period of years I came to realise it was not so, I was wrong and also the Monday Club contained some pretty unpleasant people and I resigned from it in February 1984.
Why did I move more towards the centre over the years? (he asks himself)
I think I was influenced by a number of things, I was influenced by the fact that my party kept losing elections …there was no point blaming the electorate; [we have] got to ask ourselves why we keep losing. I was influenced also by reconsideration of the period when we were in government. Yes, we had good things to our credit but here there were serious problems, there were terrible [problems] besetting inner cities, there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor, and there were serious weaknesses in the funding of our public services. I was also influenced a bit over the years by the equality, racial, LGBT, [and] gender equality. The views I previously had were no longer appropriate or right but I never wanted to be a member of any other party. But that sort of rabid right wingery which had characterised in my early years struck as anachronistic and wrong
Representation remains a problem in parliament, what can you do to diversity and for parliament to reflect the British population?
I don’t think there is a great deal that the speaker can do, the speaker can be fair in ensuring that women, [who] are generally better behaved, get a decent opportunity to speak. Ensuring, of course, that ethnic minorities, LGBT, disabled MP’s also have absolute equal and fair rights to contribute.
We did develop through [the] Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary Representation, acceptance from government that we need to do more to help disabled candidates. There was the Access to Elected Office Fund created, to try and help candidates with disabilities. But the main responsibility lies frankly on the political parties to make sure they do more to encourage and bring on women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT candidates. I think there has been a big improvement but we’ve still only got 22% of women when they make up 52% of the population, and I think we still need to do more to reach out to our ethnic minority communities by all the major parties. To try and forge a link and ask them ‘would you like to serve as an MP, do you think you can make a difference’ etc .
Any finally, do you have any tales of mischief at university?
One day in the student bar, a left-wing activist irritably came up behind me and poured a pint of beer over my head, so I became beer soaked by somebody else. Did I engage in any dubious practice or anything? No I don’t think so. But I had a lot of fun, I enjoyed debating in the Students’ Union. The University incredibly generously awarded me an Honorary Doctorate in 2010.
Bercow continues to maintain a strong relationship with University and plans on coming back sometime this year to celebrate its 50th anniversary year.
The Sunday Times