Skipper

The picture on the left is of Sally Bercow, wife of Mr Speaker Bercow, and it's part of a longer story to be published in the Standard magazine tomorrow. She will probably reveal even more bedroom secrets than she does in today's paper. Given the fact that Bercow was so unpopular in his own party that it took Labour votes to elect him last year, this is unlikely to assist harmony in the House.

Recall the reaction of Mark Pritchard, Deputy chair of the 1922 Committee, when Bercow ordered him to stand to on one side as they passed in a corridor: 'You're not fucking royalty!'. Bercow hating Tory MPs will be spluttering into the G and Ts over the weekend I predict.

Considering that Mr Speaker would almost certainly have opposed his wife's risque revelations about their revelations let alone her state of undress in the picture- and they certainly subvert the dignity of the House- I wonder what the current atmosphere chez Speaker is? Does Sally want a career in the media? Does Mr Speaker want a career in the media? Mayb this is the first signs that politics is no longer merely 'showbiz for ugly people' as Jan Leno once quipped, but the tabloidisation of the House. Maybe it will come to attract a much higher proportion of people who are merely after fame and celebrity. Do hope not.