The Speaker has a mare

Michael Martin made a bit of an arse of himself at PMQs today.

While the likes of Quentin Letts have always had it in for the Speaker (or 'Gorbals Mick' as they are wont to dub him), the Thimble, sadly without a newspaper column to vent his opinion, has always felt a bit more protective towards the MP for Glasgow North East. Maybe it was those mince pies we shared at a Christmas Reception in the Speaker's Apartments which bred such goodwill....

Today the Speaker mucked up though. He told Cameron he couldn't ask the PM who he wanted to succeed him as Labour leader as this was a matter for the Labour party.* Cameron could only ask the PM about Government business, the Speaker ruled (cue a chorus of disapproving howls from the Tory benches).

The distinction might be true but it is meddling in semantics given that Labour are the party in power. The Speaker really didn't need to wade in on this occasion and the ridiculousness of his intervention was highlighted by the fact that Cameron was then able to ask the PM who he wanted to be the next Prime Minister. This, at least, suggests that the Speaker's ruling might be as ineffective as it was ill-judged.

All in all it was a pretty crap PMQs and one the Speaker will presumably want to forget.

*Added. I should say that Cameron didn't actually mention the Labour Party (see here) which makes the intervention even more weird.