"Does democracy exist" is a complicated question. Since we are forever told the UK is a democracy it is easy to assume it is, but in actuality it is a more elaborate object than that where parts of the system are democratic - primarily the commons - but others, like the House of Lords and the judiciary, are not. Then, while the House of Commons is democratic in one sense, our democracy is significantly different to say the US, France, Germany, Sweden ... Not to mention Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Then of course MPs are, deliberately, enjoined to act as they think in the best interests of the country, not to do whatever their constituents think.

And so to the Speaker: his main role is to protect the status of the House of Commons as he sees it. It is not to side with or against the government or the wider parties. Nor to do what the general population may or may not indicate by referendums or petitions or letters to The Times. If it his judgement that having certain views expressed would lower the status of Parliament he has a responsibility to stop that. And it is his view: if other speakers came to different views, or he judged things differently on another occasion it simply means he weighed the factors differently. People are granted leave to speak or not: such binary results are not good for revealing whether the decision was agonised over or not.