Should you be putting more money on Farage?
How’ll this go down with Buckingham Tories?
Thanks to Ben Brogan in his Telegraph blog for spotting the remarkable interview that the wife of the speaker, Sally Bercow, has given to the Evening Standard.
As regulars will know I’ve come in for a bit of stick over my betting on ex-UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, who is standing against Sally’s husband, John. My reasoning has been that Bercow was elected to this ultra-safe Tory seat as a Tory and the more questions there are over his political stance then the better it is for Farage.
By tradition, of course, the mainstream parties don’t stand against the Speaker. By tradition, as well, the holders of the office keep out of party politics. So how will his wife’s comments be seen?
Now I know the constituency very well and the last thing you should do is to slag off the area’s pride and joy – the local state grammar schools.
No doubt Mr Farage will ensure the following is given wide circulation – “I don’t even want to send the children to the grammars in John’s constituency. I’m strongly against selection, because it entrenches privilege.”
But it gets worse when she starts talking about the Tory leader.
“He’s just a merchant of spin. I think he’s really an archetypal Tory. He favours the interests of the few over the mainstream majority.”
Deep down, I do think the Tory party is for the privileged few and what it stands for isn’t in the interests of most ordinary people….They’re not really interested in opportunity for all. He has his children at state school now but let’s see what happens at secondary level. There’s not a real commitment to the state sector among the Tories. The vast majority of the shadow cabinet send their children privately.”
I just wonder whether she is trying to torpedo her husband’s career.
Ladbrokes have UKIP at 3/1. I’ve put another pile on.