Martin Bell
The Bluecoat, School Lane
27th January 2010
Reviewed by
The
festival enters its tenth year with a series of five 'Rebel Rants' at
the Bluecoat. are joint sponsors, which comes in handy just in case
the speakers have books to promote. The events are well advertised and
this one at least drew a good crowd.
We've all heard of Martin Bell. He's the bloke in the white suit who
became MP for Tatton by making Neil Hamilton look a fool. He was the honest
sleaze-buster who got to Parliament and kept his promise by not standing
for a second term. Of all the high hopes that anyone had in that heady
election of 1997, Martin's the one who didn't let anyone down.
He’s old enough to have done national service in the Army (very
badly, he says). He then did thirty-five years with the BBC, becoming
one of the best-known war correspondents. Was he a radical then? Probably
not, he speaks too well of the British Army. But he's skeptical enough
to predict that the West will soon, as Britain did in 1880, declare 'victory'
in Afghanistan and leave in a hurry.
The biggest disappointment was that when he got to Parliament he had
no real idea what to do. To be fair, he wasn’t expecting to be elected.
He said it took him about six months to work out how the place worked,
which is no surprise. But then he doesn't seem to have done much with
his position. And any ideas for bigger changes in society? Nothing obvious.
It wasn't long before the audience ran out of questions as sleaze apart,
he's not much of a rebel.
It is refreshing to see someone who's trodden the corridors of power
without being corrupted by the experience and he'll make a good ambassador
for UNICEF. Just remember that Parliament has continued more or less unchanged
since he stood down and the voters of Tatton managed to elect George Osborne
in his place.
I nearly forgot Stuart Wilks-Heeg of the Uni giving us all the stats
about how few people vote these days (without venturing why) and acting
all sheepish when asked about Palestine. There’s no real need for
a second speaker at events like this, particularly when they have nothing
to contribute.
So the programme continues and next celebrity Rebel is Germaine Greer.
Hmm, Liverpool playing at home that night, close call…
|