Andy McSmith's Diary: John Bercow is evidently a man of great standing – and even greater sitting

The Speaker managed to stay in his seat for the whole 11 hours and 24 minutes of the Syria debate without a break

Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow speaks at the opening of the debate in the House of Commons on extending the bombing campaign against Islamic State to Syria (PA)

One of the mysteries about the Syria debate in the Commons is how the Speaker, John Bercow, managed to stay in his seat for the whole 11 hours and 24 minutes without a break – almost three times longer than the longest speech ever delivered on the floor of the House of Commons.

It’s a feat of physical endurance few could match and which – as he was warned by surgeon-turned-SNP MP Philippa Whitford – is not healthy for a middle-aged man.

“It is not for nothing that you have gained the title of ‘Golden Bladder’,” the SNP’s Pete Wishart told him.

Memories of Belgrade

Although Boris Johnson was present at Wednesday’s debate, he did not speak, despite being one of the few MPs who has been in a city as British bombs fell from the sky.

It was Belgrade in 1999, during the Kosovo crisis. “I honestly hated the methods that were used,” he said later. “I despised the bombing from 30,000ft, which seemed to me to be cruel and erratic. I saw lives ruined and families destroyed by bombing, and I saw civilians grieving for their loved ones, who had been killed by Nato.”

Yet four years later, Mr Johnson voted for the Iraq war, just as he voted this week for bombing Syria. Why? “As I look back now,” he explained, “I must admit that my anger obscured a separate truth: the aim was a good one, and it was a good idea to do what we could to force [Serbia’s President Slobodan Milosevic] from office. One would have to be perverse not to agree that the world is better for his going.”

News that didn’t really travel

“How would we feel if what took place in Paris had happened in London and we asked France for help and France refused?” the veteran Labour MP Margaret Beckett asked.

So how do the French feel, now that the UK has done as they asked? Underwhelmed, apparently: in France’s equivalent of the Today programme, the UK Parliament’s decision was the fifth news item.

A blunt lesson in etiquette

The Foreign Minister Tobias Ellwood has had a lecture on Commons’ rules after getting into a public spat with the Conservative chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Crispin Blunt.

Mr Blunt’s committee published a report last month saying that if the Government was going to send the RAF into Syria, it had better have a coherent strategy for ending the civil war. Mr Ellwood thought the committee had a cheek telling the Government how to conduct its business and tweeted: “Role of ctte is to scrutinise current policy – not set conditions on any future policy.”

Having got nowhere by complaining privately to the minister’s office, Mr Blunt complained to the Speaker, who told Mr Ellwood: “It is entirely a matter for select committees to decide for themselves what subjects of inquiry to pursue [and] it is both inappropriate and unwise for ministers to comment on such matters. To put it bluntly, they should stick to their last.”

Too undercover by half

Luke David, a BBC investigations producer in Bristol, is asking staff to keep their eyes open for some mislaid knitwear.

His email reads: “We’re missing our secret camera. It has gone awol during our move. The camera is sewn into a black jumper. Please could you look beside your desks to see if it’s there?”