Sally Bercow’s generous mouth gave us a dentist’s view of her molars

By
Quentin Letts

Last updated at 9:49 PM on 8th February 2012

Send him back to Jordan! That was the cry of Tory MPs (the brutes) at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Faint hearts might question the human rights involved – should any wretch, no matter how low, be consigned to such a fate?

Does the European Court of Human Rights not have a duty to intervene if unnecessary suffering is about to be caused?

Home Office ministers, meanwhile, grapple with the question: does Jordan want him back? Is Jordan coherent on this issue? Or any other?
Alex Reid, a burly chap in a smart, bulgy-biceps suit (black shirt, silvery tie, a hint of hair oil), was watching from one of the VIP galleries. Hands like JCB buckets. Shoulders a couple of yards wide.

Dentist's view: Mrs Bercow, who aches to be a Labour MP, was soon at her business, wriggling in squirmy delight when Miliband made successful sallies

Dentist’s view: Mrs Bercow, who aches to be a Labour MP, was soon at her business, wriggling in squirmy delight when Miliband made successful sallies

Mr Reid, I should explain, is a cagefighter rather than a parliamentarian. What is the difference? Good point.

Mr Reid is a martial arts specialist, a participant, so I am told, in something called Cage Rage entertainments, in which evenly matched participants try to rip out each other’s gizzards with scant regard for the Queensberry rules. It really does sound similar to what goes on at Westminster.

Mr Reid is also the husband (estranged) of Katie Price, aka the glamour model/topless bimbette who sails under the moniker ‘Jordan’. Which made life confusing yesterday because MPs more than once raised the matter of Abu Qatada, the Jordanian-born Al Qaeda supporter whose release on bail has just been ordered by an immigration court.

 

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As Mr Reid listened to demands for this fellow to be deported, he did a fair amount of heavy chin clutching.

His brow, which overhangs like parts of the Gorges du Tarn, was furrowed by concentration as he tried to follow the debating jousts. Jordan this. Jordan that.

David Cameron talked of the importance of seeking ‘agreement with Jordan’. And the best of British luck to you, mate, Mr Reid might have added.

He was not the only ‘VIP’ in the gallery above the Tory benches. Sally Bercow, wife of the Speaker, was also making a state visit.

She was there with a knot of friends and she took her habitual seat (she is the first Speaker’s spouse to have made a regular practice of attending PMQs, so far as I know) which offers her a direct view of the Leader of the Opposition.

It allows her to establish eye to eye contact with him and his senior colleagues. If she wants to shoot Ed Balls a come-hither smile, she is able so to do.

Mrs Bercow, who aches to be a Labour MP, was soon at her business, wriggling in squirmy delight when Edward Miliband made successful sallies (there were plenty of those yesterday) and showing pooh-pooh-faced dismay when Mr Cameron managed to think of a strong answer.

How she laughed, ostentatiously so, when Mr Miliband said of the Prime Minister ‘every day trust in him ebbs’. She nodded her head up and down like a penny-farthing cyclist speeding over cobbles.

She uncrossed and recrossed her purple-stockinged pins. She opened wide her generous mouth and gave us a dentist’s view of her molars.

VIP visitor: Mr Reid is a cagefighter rather than a parliamentarian. What is the difference? Good point

VIP visitor: Mr Reid is a cagefighter rather than a parliamentarian. What is the difference? Good point

She was far less delighted when, after Mr Miliband attacked Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, Mr Cameron replied that Mr Lansley’s ‘career prospects are a lot better than’ those of Mr Miliband.

In one swoop Mrs Bercow’s gaiety surrendered to glumness. She scowled. Her lower lip – I am not exaggerating – protruded. She shook her mop of blondeish hair.

The elaborate display of partiality was in full view not only of the Speaker (her supposedly impartial munchkin) but also the occupant of the Serjeant at Arms’s seat, should he have chosen to notice what was going on.

On the content of the exchanges at PMQs, Mr Miliband’s questions about the Health Service seemed to stoke a rage in Mr Cameron.

If the PM’s responses sounded petulant and overly aggressive, that may be a sign of frustration that Mr Lansley has been so foggy in laying out the arguments supporting his NHS changes.

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