Talk:Martin Bell

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European Parliament election, 2004

He is standing for the European Parliament in the June 2004 elections, as an independent candidate in the UK's eastern region.

and did he win? or lose? Iain 11:31, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Result

No, he didn't get elected ("Winning" is an odd concept in multi-member regional constituencies!). -- Arwel 13:12, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

General Election, 2005

Shame he didn't win, especially in Brentwood, we could do without Pickles being MP here. --El Zilcho 20:32, 22 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I hope you're not implying that Mr Pickles should move to become MP in Bradford?Phase4 21:21, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

National Service

Since October 2005[1], this article has asserted that "He failed to obtain a commission on his national service and served out his time as a[n] acting corporal."

Why do we mention this? It does not seem at all notable to me.
Do we have a source for it?

Cheers, CWC(talk) 18:15, 27 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Two x "s" in commission!Phase4 22:12, 27 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And I cut-and-pasted that from the article! The old "pressed Delete when the cursor wasn't where you thought it was" trick, hey? Bah. ;-] Cheers, CWC(talk) 00:27, 28 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Career with BBC

According to Oliver Kamm [2],

Here is a small example concerning my family, and that I cite because I therefore know the subject and it illustrates what I'm talking about. It would be difficult to name an African country that has suffered war in the last 40 years and whose travails have not been reported by Martin Bell for the BBC. One of those countries, however, is Rwanda. Wikipedia's entry for Martin, sure enough, cites prominently his journalism from that country - a body of work that no one has seen because it doesn't exist. It's the type of small error - something that might have happened, but didn't - that no amateur editor would feel sufficiently strongly about to check, or sure about to delete. Inevitably, given Wikipedia's reach and unwarranted use even by serious newspapers, that factoid will make its way into profiles and, one day, obituaries of the man.

Worth checking, too, some of the other places from which he's said to reported?

NotSaussure 16:16, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

His profile on the BBC lists Rwanda as a country he has reported from, whether the BBC profile is correct or not is another matter... Oldelpaso 17:04, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

After a bit of detective work, mention of Rwanda is made in the first version of this article [3] from July 2003. By using archive.org's Wayback Machine, the BBC page has existed since at least February 2003. Doesn't look like Wikipedia generated that fact. Still dont know whether its true though! Oldelpaso 17:22, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Rwanda

Criticism of inclusion at this blog http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2007/04/jeremiads_about.html Removed Rwanda for lack of citation.--80.6.163.58 17:50, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Which act rather proves what a load of cobblers Kamm's argument is. Twospoonfuls 22:10, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Mr White goes to Westminster

The Channel four drama 'Mr White Goes to Westminster' was loosely based on Bell's political career.

Although it directly parodies his election, the rest of the drama isn't remotely like it - when did Bell launch a campaign for newspapers to give the victims of bad reporting the right to the same space? Or have an affair with one of the Blair Babes? Timrollpickering (talk) 00:50, 4 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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"First successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951"

I know it comes from a cited source, but the statement "and thus became the first successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951" is not true (and the error comes from the source). Firstly it is unclear who the independent elected in 1951 was - 1951 United Kingdom general election does not indicate and Independent was elected. It could be a reference to John MacLeod elected as an Independent Liberal in at the 1945 United Kingdom general election and 1950 United Kingdom general election and who in 1951 was elected as a Conservative. However he was arguably not a true independent as he was backed by the Ross-shire Liberal Association who were not committed to either the official Liberal Party or the National Liberal Party, but included supporters of both, and he largely acted as a National Liberal and supporter of the Conservatives. The second issue is that other independents had been elected since then, notably S. O. Davies in 1970. However, Davies and other were incumbent MPs who had lost or resigned their parties backing, but still broadly supported them. So it could be argued they were not true independents like Bell. However as it stands I don't think this is a reliable statement. The question is whether to remove it, or modify it in someway? Dunarc (talk) 20:29, 22 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't read it for many years, but I'm pretty sure the same statement or a very similar one also appears in Bell's book 'An Accidental MP. Media reports at the time of Bell's election do state he was the first truly independent MP for more than 50 years. The only source that gave details stated that others have stood since then who have fallen out with their parties, citing Dick Taverne and Eddie Milne, but previous independents were elected to the Combined English Universities (UK Parliament constituency) and other English and Scottish University seats in 1945. Mighty Antar (talk) 23:27, 22 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I have a feeling that something like that might have also been said on one of the election night broadcasts or news reports the day after. David Robertson in 1959 is another example, as he had resigned the Conservative whip earlier that year and although he stood as an Independent Unionist he made clear he would not automatically support the Conservatives in every issue. The University MPs Eleanor Rathbone and John Boyd Orr in 1945 were arguably the last true independents until Bell, as Macleod clearly had some party backing. Dunarc (talk) 18:57, 23 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Speech

He's doing a lot of ad-spots for UNICEF. His speech sounds really uncanny, like Max Headroom. Is this connected with his head injury and maxillo-facial surgery?

MrDemeanour (talk) 19:10, 13 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]