How did Michael Martin fool anyone in the first place?

Maybe it's because I'm a former journalist, that I feel compelled to read every word of the sorry story unfolding around our Government and the truly awful Speaker Michael Martin. How did this buffoon ever get into this position in the first place? A deeply depressing story and one I certainly recognise - you know the person working in a position of authority who quite clearly shouldn't be there and who does huge reputational damage to the organisation and to anybody who has the misfortune to be working anywhere near them.

When I'm training this issue sometimes comes up. In media training it's easy to deal with - our advice sometimes has to be NEVER let this person in front of the camera. But, of course, bad behaviour may be kept off the TV screens; but the person goes unchallenged back into their organisation. Interestingly, I see more and more organisations trying to root out this kind of behaviour and demand that their staff adhere to certain codes of contact. I'm 100 per cent in favour of this as it has a direct effect on the reputation of the organisation.

Any views, most welcome ...