Fingers in throat

Sycophancy is not unusual in the Commons, but tributes now being paid to Michael Martin are enough to make me sick.

This is the House that chose, just a few weeks ago, to drive hundreds of knives into the man's back.

Most MPs that didn’t directly attack him were happy to sit quiet while others did the dirty work.

Now they are standing one by one to lick the proverbial – Martin is apparently “warm”, “kind” and “courteous”. You’ll be surprised to hear it wasn’t either Kate Hoey or Pat Hewitt who said those things.

Nicholas Winterton, who was found to have broken rules by claiming for a flat his family owned, said he was "completely satisfied" with the Speaker’s performance.

An endorsement like that is worse than anything any opponent could have said.