THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS A BRIEF HISTORY

The speaker’s primary function is to preside over the House of Commons. According to parliamentary rules, the speaker is the highest authority of the House of Commons and has final say over how its business is conducted.

The earliest records of Parliament having a Speaker in the House go back nearly as far as Parliament itself – since at least 1258, when Peter de Montford presided over Parliament when it sat in Oxford.

Power struggles between the monarchy and the people (alright, the nobility) meant Parliament - and certainly not a democratically-elected Parliament – would not always be able to sit.

Continuous records of a Speaker of the House date back to 1376, when Sir Peter de la Mare spoke for the commons in the “Good Parliament” as they joined leading magnates in purging the chief ministers of the Crown and the most unpopular members of the King’s household.

The King’s second son arrested De la Mare and disgraced other leading critics. In 1377, a cowed Commons put forward Gaunt’s steward, Thomas

In 2000, Boothroyd took the surprising decision to stand down from her role as Speaker, as an MP. Her fi nal speech closed with her familiar refrain ‘Time’s Up!’ She took her seat as a crossbench peer (rather than a Labour peer) in 2001, and took up the title Baroness Boothroyd of Sandwell in the county of the West Midlands.

Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, paid tribute to her as “something of a national institution”. Blair’s predecessor, John Major, described her as an “outstanding Speaker”. She resigned as Speaker and as an MP by accepting an appointment to the position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds. They do know how to create elaborate titles in the Establishment…

She also campaigned successfully and with great tenacity for a memorial to be erected in Whitehall to commemorate the role of the women of Britain in the second world war.

Honours and honorary degrees were bestowed upon her, by universities including Oxford, Cambridge, London and St Andrews. However, her personal interests centred on her role as chancellor of the Open University. It was a post she was invited to accept because of her support for the universal right to adult education.

In 2005, she was awarded the Order of Merit, an honour bestowed personally by the monarch. There are only ever 24 living recipients of the award, and rarely bestowed upon a politician. Indeed, at the time of her death, Boothroyd was the only member from a political background.

Hungerford, as their spokesman in retracting their predecessors’ misdeeds of the previous year. Gaunt evidently wanted a “mirror-image” as his form of counter-coup and this notion – born in crisis, of one ‘speaker’, who quickly also became ‘chairman’ and organiser of the Commons’ business – was seen as workable, and immediately took root.

Although each Speaker was elected by the MPs, it was usually the Crown’s own man. Successive King were not about to give up their authority that easily. This stand-off remained the case until the mid-17th Century, and the time of the English Civil War, when the roles for the Speaker became far more about the House than for the Crown.

The speakership evolved into its

Boothroyd never married nor had any children, something she was sad about, but she was brilliant with other people’s and had an instinct for treating them as if they were grownups. Her role as speaker probably had to work the other way.

Boothroyd passed away on February 26th 2023. The two Prime Ministers she had most dealings with led the tributes. Sir John Major said, “Betty Boothroyd was a superb Speaker, easy to like and easier still to admire. As Speaker, she was full of common sense and utterly fair in her rulings. She handled a fractious Commons with great skill. She set a standard for every future speaker.”

Meanwhile, Sir Tony Blair paid his own tribute to her as “a big-hearted and kind person”, adding: “She was a truly outstanding Speaker, presiding with great authority, warmth and wit, for which she had our deep respect and admiration.” modern form—in which the holder is an impartial and apolitical officer who does not belong to any party—only during the middle of the 19th century.

The election of the Speaker takes place after various candidacies are declared, and MPs vote for ‘one of their own’. It is all presided over by the Father/Mother of the House (current incumbent Sir Peter Bottomley).

Upon being chosen, the speakerelect is expected to show reluctance at being chosen; and the charade of being dragged unwillingly to the Speaker’s bench is customarily played out. This custom has its roots in the speaker’s original function of communicating the Commons’ opinions to the monarch. Historically, the speaker, representing the House to the monarch, potentially faced the monarch’s anger and therefore required some persuasion to accept the post.

The current Speaker is Sir Lindsay Hoyle (pictured left), who replaced John

The law firm Morr & Co has appointed its first female Managing Partner, Catherine Fisher, following the retirement of Paul Harvey, who had been with the firm since 1988, and Managing Partner since 2008.

Founded in 1729, the firm has grown significantly and now boasts nine branches across Surrey and Hampshire. As the reins are passed to Catherine on April 2nd, MAARTEN HOFFMANN sat down with her to find out what the future holds for this highly successful law firm