THE sacked Chancellor George Osborne is showing all the signs of becoming Theresa May’s bete noire on the Government backbenches, the dreaded “loose cannon” firing random missiles designed to make life uncomfortable for a Government he considers too right-wing.

Needless to say, he has, by and large, denied this charge, replying “not necessarily” when asked whether he would be providing a distraction for Theresa May from the backbenches.

That sounds pretty ominous to me.

And, apparently setting himself up as the voice of what he called the “liberal majority”, he may garner enough support to make it that much more difficult for the Prime Minister simply to swat him down like an annoying fly.

His remark that he had voted for Mrs May as the new Tory leader because - to put it in my words rather than his - he implied she was the best of a bad bunch of aspirants, was scarcely a compliment.

Grammar schools, Hinckley and his “Northern powerhouse” project are among the issues he seems intent on pursuing from the backbenches.

And he has said he does not intend to write his memoirs yet, because he does not know what the end will be.

These sound very much like the words of a man who hasn’t given up his ambition to return to front-line politics, or even to acquire the key of 10, Downing Street. Politicians are adept at saying the nastiest things in the nicest possible way.

The Prime Minister will need eyes like a hawk to ensure Osborne’s ambitions do not cause her problems.

IS the self-important Commons Speaker John Bercow, who bizarrely likes a little peace and quiet in the chamber, starting to get his own way?

The answer could be “yes” if the last session of Prime Minister’s Questions is any guide. It was as dull and dreary as ditchwater, with the two combatants, according to one pundit, doing ponderous battle in slow motion, like two tired tortoises. As a result, the House was uncannily silent and “well-behaved”.

But Mr Bercow should not take all, or indeed any of the credit for this. Corbyn is a dull dog – no Neil Kinnock, he – who drones on in a manner liable to induce slumber even in the most volatile of opponents.

Likewise, Theresa May, although authoritative, certainly does not possess the rabble-rousing abilities of Margaret Thatcher, say.

Mr Bercow has said the public do not like the normal rowdyism of PMQs.

Well, if he really believes that – and he must do because he has said it scores of times – then he should get out more.

He is wrong, wrong, wrong.

It is politics in the raw, red in tooth and claw, with roughly half the occupants of the Chamber going savagely for the jugular of the other half, their avowed political enemies.

That is not only desirable and healthy, but it is only natural.

So if Bercow succeeds in gentrifying debate in the House of Commons, he will get no thanks for that.

Bring on the rowdies, I say.