Wednesday 5 June 2013

The Adventures of the Rt. Hon. John Bercow in Romania

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John Bercow: Eastern European immigrants are better workers

I sent this John Bercow story to the Daily Telegraph and it is today's lead story on the front page. I scooped the world. 


This was the blog post I wrote and sent to the papers.

By the way, this story is not about Romania but about English politics. I have no objection whatsoever to what Mr Bercow said about immigration or anything else but I have the strongest possible objection to the Speaker of the House of Commons saying anything that anyone in the House of out of it could reasonably disagree with. He is meant to be a silent impartial semi-judicial figure in a wig and gown.


The Telegraph and Daily Mail headlines both inaccurately quoted the Speaker as saying 'Migrants are harder workers than Britons.' The other newspapers, even the left-wing Guardian, followed the Telegraph.

The Telegraph contacted Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, who stood against Mr. Bercow at the last election. Mr Farage said, reasonably:
“It is outrageous that Mr. Bercow is happy to overthrow the wisdom of ages and think it acceptable to comment on matters that are both highly political and deeply contentious. He is a disgrace to the office of Speaker.There are very good practical and constitutional reasons why the Speaker is neutral, reasons that he obviously believes are beneath his own august self image.”

Some people in England are getting fed up with the behavior of Romanian gypsies and this makes the story more topical than would otherwise be the case. However, the  story is not about Romania or about immigration. It is purely about English politics and the once revered (what is left of it) English constitution. The English Constitution, unlike the ones of every other country in the world (Bhutan might be another exception) is ‘ unwritten’. That means it is not contained in any one document but in thousands of them, including Acts of Parliament, books of constitutional theory and  old court decisions. This means it is constantly being changed by inadvertence or on purpose. Mr. Bercow has been driving a coach and horses through it since he became Speaker.

Personally, I think Romanians and other Eastern Europeans make the perfect immigrants. I wrote about this here. I also think it is disgraceful that the UK is taking immigrants from outside Europe when there are Romanians and Bulgarians available, who are European and Christian. 

A British diplomat mentioned to me today at lunch that the British Government intends to make visa even easier for Indians to obtain. 




For those who want to know more of Mrs. Bercow, a photograph of her, wearing only a bed sheet, with the House of Commons in the background, appeared in the London Evening Standard, along wsith an interview in which she  said "Becoming Speaker has turned my husband into a sex symbol". She later said, "It was just meant to be a bit of fun, but obviously it has completely backfired on me and I look a complete idiot. This makes me feel for her. She is a rather jolly upper middle-class girl trying to have some fun but it never goes right for her. She took part in the Big Brother competition in 2011 and was, predictably I feel, the first person to be evicted.

Below by the way is Mr Bercow's coat of arms, which amused or disgusted his countrymen. The ladder represent the fact that he climbed to his present eminence from the lowly beginning as a taxi driver's son. The motto 'All are Equal' might seem very odd for a man who was a Conservative politician but nowadays conservatives and liberals in England seem to believe in equality as much as socialists. The words of the motto are punctuated by pink triangles, representing his support for equal treatment for homosexuals.

To the ladder born: Speaker Bercow's new coat of arms

20 comments:

  1. Now wonder that one of the lowest level British media and most active in the infamous slander campaign against Romanians has found your piece worth of publishing.
    Les grands ésprits se rencontrent.

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  2. The Daily Telegraph is a lovely, kindly newspaper with a good sense of humour. Very unlike the class-prejudiced and narrow-minded Daily Mail or the poisonous and humourless Guardian. No-one is defaming Romanians on the Telegraph but many Romanians are pretty fond of slander themselves so cannot throw stones. Most tend only to welcome immigrants from rich countries, in my experience.

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    1. I checked a little this „Daily Telegraph“ and it appears indeed as not being that crap. Don’t expect me to be more knowledgeable or to have a more differentiate view of UK than you have of Romania. Viewed from the distance, all that „daily“ stuff of yours is crap. Who cares ?

      A propos „crap“: your text about Bercow is nothing but a piece of ad hominem attack where the argumentative structure lies on suggesting his wife being a nymphomaniac whore. Prudently, you missed however to remember that Bercow is of Jewish Romanian descent, which would have of course explained the whole thing, didn’t it ?

      As for Romanians being fond of slander, I presume you’re watching too much these crappy Romanian private TV channels. This is not necessarily representative for Romanians.

      It is true that Romanians are generally nice and tolerant towards immigrants, regardless of their origin. Often this generosity and natural courtesy is being misinterpreted and cynically exploited by immigrants from the rich countries. Make no mistake: Romanians are well aware of this, but values such as hospitality and humanity, deeply anchored in this ancient (rural) culture of ours, prevail. I don’t know for how long, hopefully not for too long.

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    2. Of course she is not a whore or as far as I know a nymphomaniac but of course I see why a Romanian reading my piece would understand that and think I was impugning Mr Bercow's manliness. We in the West care much less for manliness which may be a bad thing, though I do not like machismo or that sort of male chauvinism. Of course this is an ad hominem attack but I was trying to make a point about the Speaker's duty to remain schtum and to make fun of a man whose character has been completely assassinated. There is no hope of resuscitation. I googled and found you are right. Like Michael Howard he is of Romanian Jewish stock. What do you conclude from that? You are right that one can never understand a foreign country but attempts to do so are I think useful and valuable. I find Voltaire's remarks on England brilliant for example or John Paget on Hungary and Transylvania. Olivia Manning was pretty perceptive here in her one year here, though some Romanians get annoyed with her.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Romania has no interest in being in Schengen, don't need the German chapter of the Hells Angels selling drugs in Romania too.

    The net balance is the Rumanian politicians are slowly but surely learning how to be corrupt in style, instead of trading favours for home made sausages, and that soon being corrupt will be a thing belonging to the elite only, instead of the democratic way of making ends meet we enjoy now.

    Prices have gone up, true, but the net income has gone up too, about 4-5 times since 1990, not that Eu has much merit in this, except maybe for not closing their borders completely.

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  5. Paul, you're suddenly very sarcastic, how come ?

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  6. Anonymous mistook Daily Telegraph for Daily Mail :) . The Telegraph is quite balanced, and one of the newspapers that broke the story on the fake Hyde Park squatters.

    Paul, I can believe that what Bercow did is a mistake and wrong from the perspective of English politics. Still, after the Schengen debacle and recent public statements by a leading eurocrat, I think the political elite in UK wanted to send a message and Bercow might have been the one to deliver it.

    As I read it, the first part of the hidden message was that quite probably the restrictions on movement will not be lifted on 2014-01-01. The second part of the hidden message was that the government and the Parliament of the United Kingdom believe that breaking commitments is wrong and they regret they have to go this way, yet would not stoop so low as to manufacture pretexts.

    If that was indeed the hidden agenda and I am not reading too much into it, we should be grateful. Just compare it with the Schengen debacle, which proved only that Romania should not expect equal treatment in EU any time soon and should not rely on EU for anything important, not even for delivering the bad news in a graceful manner.

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  7. No message. He just has a big mouth. Romania has no right to be in Schengen unless she has tight borders.I wonder what the net balance is for Romania of joining the EU - her politicians can continue to be corrupt now they are in, prices have gone up. What do you think, O seer?

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  8. every time you mention romania s corruption, you should think that corruption is present at every level in welfare states and pretty much in 99% of the world s states.(except tibet?) in some places is better hidden behind corporations and such,others it is not. So with that in mind talking about corruption in a specific country is really pointless and adds nothing. laur

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    1. There is corruption everywhere -- it is the response to corruption that is key. Lax, shoulder-shrugging response to corruption and a lack of consequences for corruption are high in Romania.

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  9. Great article about a man about whom there is very little to admire ...

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  10. Bercow's a prat, but evidently capable of speaking the truth occasionally. Whether he should, in his position, be doing this sort of thing is another matter.

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  11. What a horrible little man he is. Another very interesting article and well done for your scoop! Sandra McDermott

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  12. Daily Telegraph fair to Romanians? Are you joking or what?
    Let me give you a piece of DT fairness on Romanians.

    On September 24th, 2012, The Telegraph published an article “Labour’s embarrassing immigration secrets revealed” signed by Patrick Hennesy, the Political Editor of The Telegraph.
    The editorial started with: Reports kept under wraps by Labour showing that immigrants who came to Britain from Romania and Bulgaria had low education levels and were more likely to claim out-of-work benefits are to be released for the first time by ministers” was the first paragraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8786632/Labours-embarrassing-immigration-secrets-revealed.html
    Well, the article based on a study prepared by the Department for Communities and Local Government which was never published but quickly archived by the Labour government
    I did a little digging and found the original report here:
    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120919132719/http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1997160.pdf
    • What DT said: Of 2009 more than 15 per cent of them (A2 immigrants) were claiming out-of-work benefits (The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express and rest of British media)
    What report said: Only 3.5 per cent of Romanian and Bulgarians immigrants were unemployed. However they had no rights to benefits.
    • What DT said: Reports kept under wraps by Labour showing that immigrants who came to Britain from Romania and Bulgaria had low education levels and were more likely to claim out-of-work benefits are to be released for the first time by ministers.
    What report says: A2 migrants (aka Romanians and Bulgarians) also have a higher proportion of highly educated people compared to other migrants (page 20)
    …etc, etc, etc

    DT article is one of the worst misrepresentation of truth I ever come across

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  13. Daily Telegraph fair to Romanians? Are you joking or what?
    Let me give you a piece of DT fairness on Romanians.

    On September 24th, 2012, The Telegraph published an article “Labour’s embarrassing immigration secrets revealed” signed by Patrick Hennesy, the Political Editor of The Telegraph.
    The editorial started with: Reports kept under wraps by Labour showing that immigrants who came to Britain from Romania and Bulgaria had low education levels and were more likely to claim out-of-work benefits are to be released for the first time by ministers” was the first paragraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8786632/Labours-embarrassing-immigration-secrets-revealed.html
    Well, the article based on a study prepared by the Department for Communities and Local Government which was never published but quickly archived by the Labour government
    I did a little digging and found the original report here:
    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120919132719/http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1997160.pdf
    • What DT said: Of 2009 more than 15 per cent of them (A2 immigrants) were claiming out-of-work benefits (The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express and rest of British media)
    What report said: Only 3.5 per cent of Romanian and Bulgarians immigrants were unemployed. However they had no rights to benefits.
    • What DT said: Reports kept under wraps by Labour showing that immigrants who came to Britain from Romania and Bulgaria had low education levels and were more likely to claim out-of-work benefits are to be released for the first time by ministers.
    What report says: A2 migrants (aka Romanians and Bulgarians) also have a higher proportion of highly educated people compared to other migrants (page 20)
    …etc, etc, etc

    DT article is one of the worst misrepresentation of truth I ever come across

    ReplyDelete
  14. Daily Telegraph fair to Romanians? Are you joking or what?
    Let me give you a piece of DT fairness on Romanians.

    On September 24th, 2012, The Telegraph published an article “Labour’s embarrassing immigration secrets revealed” signed by Patrick Hennesy, the Political Editor of The Telegraph.
    The editorial started with: Reports kept under wraps by Labour showing that immigrants who came to Britain from Romania and Bulgaria had low education levels and were more likely to claim out-of-work benefits are to be released for the first time by ministers” was the first paragraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8786632/Labours-embarrassing-immigration-secrets-revealed.html
    Well, the article based on a study prepared by the Department for Communities and Local Government which was never published but quickly archived by the Labour government
    I did a little digging and found the original report here:
    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120919132719/http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1997160.pdf
    • What DT said: Of 2009 more than 15 per cent of them (A2 immigrants) were claiming out-of-work benefits (The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express and rest of British media)
    What report said: Only 3.5 per cent of Romanian and Bulgarians immigrants were unemployed. However they had no rights to benefits.
    • What DT said: Reports kept under wraps by Labour showing that immigrants who came to Britain from Romania and Bulgaria had low education levels and were more likely to claim out-of-work benefits are to be released for the first time by ministers.
    What report says: A2 migrants (aka Romanians and Bulgarians) also have a higher proportion of highly educated people compared to other migrants (page 20)
    …etc, etc, etc

    DT article is one of the worst misrepresentation of truth I ever come across

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  15. John Bercow, just another name for Emmanuel Goldstein

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    1. I do not live in England my ancestral home. I know very little of Mr. Bercow. But the physical description seems
      to fit.

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