Speaker Bercow has made a mistake in opting not to wear the traditional robes of his office.
It is not a matter of “modernisation”. Parliament needs reform of its practices, not its dress codes. It is also the worst of both worlds: evidently the speaker believes he needs distinctive clothing, yet is unwilling to accept those which he is granted.
The old outfit conveys a more important reform than the facile and superficial “modernisation” a lounge suit represents. The problem with Parliament has been its progressive weakening as an institution over the past decades. Reform is aimed at restoring it to its former position within the constitution. Wearing the traditional robes of office would have been an important symbolic act, stating Parliament’s intention to return to its original principles, rather than the continued denigration of the importance of the institution that allowed the expenses scandal to occur in the first place.
What a waste of an opportunity.
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