The Londoner: John Bercow rules the school after latest election success

In today’s Londoner: Sandi Toksvig’s condom gaffe / Flora Anderson on the pandemic’s silver lining /  Gavin Barwell’s curious Commons page 
PinkNews Awards 2019
John Bercow
Dave Benett
27 November 2020

John Bercow may have left Parliament, but he couldn’t resist the lure of another election. The former Speaker of the House of Commons has just been elected a parent-governor of Holland Park School, aka the “Socialist Eton,” whose former pupils include Hilary Benn and Polly Toynbee.

Insiders say he came top out of 14 candidates for a single vacancy.  

Parents’ evening for his three children will be interesting, as he may bump into top Brexiteer Cabinet minister Michael Gove, who sends one of his children there.  

Bercow told the Londoner that he and wife Sally, right, were “strongly committed to the school”. He said: “The school is a reflection of London, with people from grand houses and people who live under the shadow of Grenfell.”

So how is “Golden Bladder”, as Bercow was nicknamed because of his ability to endure 10-hour Brexit debates without a break, enjoying life after the stormiest speakership in memory?

“It was a bit like Beirut at times,” he said. “I hugely enjoyed it but I honestly felt that enough is enough.”  

These days he gets by as Professor of Politics at Royal Holloway College, does lots of public speaking (mostly on Zoom), and advises a few businesses.

Is he keeping a close eye on Boris Johnson and new Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle?  “I’m more inclined to watch Netflix than Prime Minister’s Questions.”

Toksvig’s burning blushes over condom gaffe 

Royal Academy Of Arts Summer Exhibition Preview Party 2018
 Sandi Toksvig
Dave Benett

Sandi Toksvig last night confessed to an embarrassing student-era injury. At a Fane event for her new book Toksvig’s Almanac, the former Bake Off presenter said she tried to dispose of an unneeded condom by setting fire to it. “If you set fire to the end of a condom that wad of rubber at the very end separates itself from the rest... flies in the air and embeds itself in your arm”. Toksvig, right, was too embarrassed to go to the nurse. “I’m one of the few people I know who’s got a condom injury,” she added. Few?

– 

SHEIN Autumn Winter Pop Up Exclusive Preview Evening
 Precious Muir
Dave Benett for SHEIN

ITV has been accused of being “tokenistic” in the racial casting of its reality shows by a former contestant. Precious Muir, below, who was in the first series of The Circle in 2018, told The Londoner that shows such as the latest I’m A Celebrity series must “stop using the old formula of having a few token individuals to cover the 20 per cent requirement”. ITV were contacted for comment. 

--

Flora Anderson
Instagram

Comic Flora Anderson, whose online sketches have gone viral this year, tells us the pandemic's universal reference point has a silver lining for her trade: “If you talk about anything to do with corona or the government right now everyone is watching” she said.

Anderson added that being “forced” to do more online had made her braver in her comedy. "I like doing stand-up and improv. That's where I would always want to perform" she said. "The internet is so vulnerable a space... it can make you just not want to say or do anything. I got over that - I stopped feeling so insecure and realised it's quite fun."

She gave some extra tips for  comedy writers: "Anything to do with dating and sex it's easy. Sex is something people like, and corona and you just put them together."

One character is a pushy "one-night stand" who invites themselves to stay for whole of lockdown. Anderson, who is daughter of arch interviewer Clive, said the idea came on a date just before the rule change. Let's hope they stayed off Twitter.

SW1A

GREEN Party co-leader Sian Berry says while she often bumps into Keir Starmer in north London shops, he won’t reply to her requests for a meeting. She said: “I’m quite aggrieved...You’d think a new broom would at least want to talk to other party leaders.”

--

GAVIN Barwell is writing a book about his time as Theresa May’s chief of staff. But, while investigating this, The Londoner found the link to his personal website on his Lords page leads to a “trusted” Indonesian gambling site. Perhaps something to sort first.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in