John Bercow

THE FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON JOE WICKS, BURMA AND DONALD TRUMP

Until the pandemic hit, I had never heard of Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Now they have become part of my life as most of my commercial and academic work has been done by that means. But the inability to play or watch outdoor sport for long periods I have found severely stultifying. Joe Wicks has been a lifeline. I have been doing his 20-minute workouts five times a week since 24 March 2020. He is utterly motivational. If it had been 60 minutes or even 40, take-up would have been tiny. Twenty minutes’ exercise, with our three children or sometimes alone, but always coaxed, encouraged, willed on by Joe, has made me a lot fitter. Thanks Joe. You have worked wonders for so many people who need no equipment to follow your lead and you have supported the NHS in the process. Since coronavirus struck, precious little has been said about the 11-plus. Over 70 different 11-plus exams are taken by over 100,000 pupils every year and the results are not recorded or linked to pupil records. This extraordinary omission in an age of transparency means that we don’t know how many pupils take the test every year and how many pass. Education researchers cannot evaluate 11-plus results against children’s SATs and GCSE grades and young people’s A levels without study of vital 11-plus data. Now, more than 20 distinguished academics specialising in education research, led by Dr Nuala Burgess, Chair of Comprehensive Future, have written to Gavin Williamson, urging him to publish the information without delay. Gavin, as your old boss David Cameron once said, sunshine is the best disinfectant!

If school pupils have suffered, so have university students. I wear two hats in the sector as Chancellor of my alma mater, Essex University, and as a part-time Professor of Politics at Royal Holloway College, London University. Both universities are doing all they can to adapt their teaching to mitigate the disruption. Yet the rupture is obvious and undeniable. I don’t have a solution beyond superfast roll-out of the vaccine but my generation were lucky. I paid no fees, had a full maintenance grant, and benefited from outstanding teaching and the opportunities of a campus university. Today’s students have a raw deal by comparison.

biography, Robert Caro’s four-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, a masterpiece truly jaw-dropping in scope.

It was a triumph of American democracy to evict the most rancid, racist and repellent occupant of the White House in my lifetime. In 2017, as Speaker, believing that he exhibited fascist tendencies, I signalled opposition to him addressing our Parliament and was condemned by reactionaries and stuffed shirts. Nothing has happened in the last four years to change my mind on the subject but much has happened to reinforce my conviction that he should not be invited.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris face huge challenges but they are motivated by the spirit of public service, not the service of themselves, and will enjoy global goodwill.

has over 200 million subscribers world-wide, our household included. In the last eleven months, I have cherished The Stranger, The Queen’s Gambit and, above all, The Crown. Critics have carped about the latter for historical inaccuracy but it’s brilliantly acted and a thoughtprovoking introduction to post-war British history. I’ve also read more books than I did as Speaker. Nothing has surpassed my favourite political

Misery and privation is faced again by the people of Burma. After more than half a century of brutal military dictatorship, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory in 2015. Daw Suu made big mistakes, suffering major damage to her reputation. She should learn from the experience. That said, she won overwhelmingly again in the November 2020 election. Her detention, and the theft of the election by the military from the people, is a scandal. It is time for the Biden Administration, eloquently backed by the UK, the European Union and freedomlovers everywhere, to isolate the Burmese generals until they face trial. Let them do so, answering for their thuggery to the International Criminal Court.