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The Little Book of Bell

When Diana, Princess of Wales, died tragically in Fayed's Mercedes, in Paris in the early hours of 31 August 1997, Fayed and his entourage blamed the paparazzi, who were following on motorcycles.  Within minutes researchers on the British news networks were delving into their videotape libraries, and within hours the BBC and ITN news reports were full of pejorative shots of motorcycling photographers and camera crews chasing after various French heads of state over the years.

A few hours later that morning, Mohamed Al Fayed's spokesman, Michael Cole - an ex-BBC newsreader and a personal friend of Bell - appeared on BBC television outside Harrods for a live interview linked to the studio presenters.  He expressed his master's sorrow at the death of the princess and his son (and, never one to miss an opportunity, pleaded that Fayed should now be granted his British passport).  Cole riled against the photographers, who, he said, had chased the princess's car like a pack of "Red Indians chasing a wagon".

Within hours debates on Press conduct broke out everywhere. After reflecting on the matter, a few days later Martin Bell gave the Northwich Guardian the benefit of his measured counsel:

'Former journalist Martin Bell blamed the Press this week for the death of Diana Princess of Wales. The MP, a friend of Diana, said she'd been hounded to death by merciless, mercenary journalists... "Their murderous intrusions will have to be curbed. They will face their day of reckoning and the old cry of the freedom of the Press will not be a sufficient defence". '

Except that, of course, it was subsequently revealed that the cause of the accident was entirely due to Fayed's own driver, Henri Paul, driving at silly speeds whilst drunk and stoned, and that the photographers, rather than being "merciless, mercenary, and murderous", were in the main blameless. 

Clearly, Martin Bell's judgement had been impaired by his outrage at what he perceived the paparazzi's behaviour to be. This caused him to jump to the wrong conclusion, swallow Fayed's reckless lies, and make a stand.  Which is exactly what happened four months earlier during the 1997 general election.  The fact is, after being brainwashed by The Guardian, Martin Bell's judgement was clearly impaired by outrage over what he perceived Neil Hamilton's behaviour to be.  This caused him to jump to the wrong conclusion, swallow Fayed's reckless lies, and make a stand.

Only this time Bell had made his stand in Tatton.

What will happen to Martin Bell is anyone's guess.  But Bell is a superstitious person, and he carries with him an assortment of good luck charms at all times.  And for a superstitious person like Bell, there was one very bad omen indeed during his campaigning for the 1997 general election.  For lying there among his letters of support, was a good luck message from the late veteran actor of the stage and screen, Sir Alec Guinness.  But what is the significance of this?

Well, Alec Guinness played the title role in the classic post-war British film The Man in a White Suit.  This was a story about a scientist who worked in a large textile mill, who had invented a synthetic, white cloth, from which he made a suit.  The man boasted that his white suit was indestructible and, moreover, that no dirt of any description could be made to stick to it.

At first, the suit's seemingly wondrous properties caused the mill-workers to celebrate his success, and his fame caused ordinary decent folk to cheer him in the streets.  But then they realised that the proliferation of this new material would eventually weaken the very institutions upon which they depended.  Consequently, the mood started to turn against the Man in the White Suit, and he found himself being pursued by all and sundry.

Then, suddenly, a storm gathered.  And when the clouds broke and the rain fell, to everyone's surprise it was the purity of the rainwater that caused the man's white suit to come apart at the seams.  And then the people saw the white suit for what it was, and they realised that the man wearing it had, in fact, deceived them all from the very beginning.

And so life began to return to normal.

And the people, now a little wiser, lived happily ever after.

Chapter Seven

Daily Telegraph article: short, sharp and .. that rings a bell