Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow has released a YouTube tutorial on why he yells “order” in such a variety of distinctive ways.
In the video clip, uploaded to the UK Parliament YouTube channel, the Speaker breaks down the difference between a drawn-out “ordeeeeehhh’ and a snappy “ordah”, as he tries to enforce discipline in the House.
“If there is a lot of noise, I will tend to say ‘ordeeeeehhh’ - the House must calm itself, there’s a long time to go, or there are a lot of questions that we need to get through and we must have some order,” he explains.
“Or I will sometimes say ‘ordah’ to a particular member who’s making an excessive noise - the honourable member must calm himself, he’s becoming very over-excitable.”
In the three-minute clip, Mr Bercow details additional traditions for keeping order in the Commons.
“When the Speaker is on his feet, a member should not be on his or her feet,” he says, defending himself against potential accusations of being “pompous or self-important” by stressing these are simply the conventions surrounding the Speaker in his role as “umpire”.
The 56-year-old has spent nearly 10 years in the chair and has been a divisive figure in British politics.
He was criticised last month for scuppering Theresa May’s Brexit deal by ruling out a third meaningful vote unless major changes were made, and has survived various attempts to oust him from his role.
“Quite a lot of people will hear me say this if they watch our proceedings and it’s not intended to denigrate any particular person,” he says in the clip.
“It’s not intended to be dismissive of colleagues, it’s intended to do just what the word says – restore order."
