"Near where the chartered Thames does flow"...

stands the Speaker's House. From within we hear the untuous sub-Sinden tones of the Speaker himself.

And boy does he want evereything to be centralling controlled.

Next up applications to stand for political parties. According to the Independent,

"Political parties are to be forced to declare how many women, ethnic minority and disabled applicants they reject as potential parliamentary candidates under cross-party plans backed by Commons Speaker John Bercow. "

"To monitor progress properly requires data from all stages of the selection process, from the initial call for applicants to the final outcome," it said in its report. "Otherwise we will only ever know about the individuals who are successful."

Anne Begg, the vice-chairman of the Conference, said: "Unless the performance of the different parties can be compared with each other, or with the performance of parties throughout the world, there is likely to be insufficient pressure for the political parties to pursue the cultural change which is needed from them before we can have a House of Commons fit for the 21st century."

Which is all very well if you come from a political establishment that centrally controls applications for seats. If you come from say, The Tory Party, or the Labour Party or indeed the Lib Dems. For those parties that impose candidates upon their associations then this would be a mere matter of flicking a switch, but for those who allow local asociations the right to decide who stands for them then this is an absurdity.

It is also open to abuse by rights activists, who apply, whether capable or suitable or not, and them denounce the party that they have targetted. To make a plan like this fair the entire selection procedures, all cv's, all memberships, all the committees would have to be on some government held record, would have to be open to the public.

What if a party fails to attract sufficient one legged Asian women, what sanctions is the political cross-dresser and dwarf Mr Bercow going to take?

And is this plan entirely legal, can a party - which is not a public body may I make clear, bve forced to hand over that sort of information. Will it include religious denomination? And in the end so what. Pedople vote for parties on the candidates they put up and the policies they present, and indeed whether they trust them.

They do ot vote for them on the candidates they don't put up.

If you want to vote for a party that is compromised of short types with slightly too large heads - blown up with their self importance, than fine if you live in Buckingham, you too can vote for John Bercow.