Peer of the Week - Lord Bell
Author: Jon Narcross
Published on Oct 23, 2012
Our Peer of the Week series aims to shed some light on the members of the House of Lords who contribute to making laws in the UK. Each week, we’ll look at the chosen Peer’s background, voting and attendance records as well as any controversy associated with their actions, and question whether these really are the best people to be involved in the legislative process.
Who is he:
- A public relations and advertising executive, he received a Knighthood in 1990 and was made a life peer as Baron Bell, of Belgravia in the City of Westminster, in 1998
- He helped found Saatchi and Saatchi in 1970, as well as Lowe Bell Communications in 1987, before becoming Chairman of Chime Communications (which includes PR firm Bell Pottinger) in 1994
- He was instrumental in the successful election campaigns of Margaret Thatcher and is seen as one of the first modern ‘spin doctors’
- He has been the Chairman of the Conservative Party’s ‘Keep the £’ campaign since 1999
Voting record and attendance
- Has only spoken in 5 debates since 2000
- He has not spoken in the house since February 2008
- Has voted with his party in 14.98% of all possible votes since November 1999
- In 2000 he voted against the repeal of Section 28 which would have ended the ban on what was termed the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ by state schools and local authorities
Controversy
- In November 1977 he was fined £50 after being convicted of indecency, having being caught masturbating through his bathroom window in plain sight of passers by down in the street below
- In 2006 he successfully lobbied on behalf of the Saudi government for the discontinuation of a Special Fraud Office investigation into allegations of bribery by arms group BAE Systems to get weapons deals
- He defended PR firm Bell Pottinger following accusations it breached Wikipedia’s conflict of interest guidelines by editing articles relating to clients in a positive way while removing negative information
- Critics have noted that with Bell Pottinger, Lord Bell has done PR work and lobbying on behalf of Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, Lukashenko’s dictatorship in Belarus, the Bahraini government, the Assad family in Syria, and President Ahmadinejad’s regime in Iran