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Timothy Bell, Baron Bell

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Politician

The Resume

    (October 18, 1941-August 25, 2019)
    Born in Southgate, North London, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Timothy John Leigh Bell
    Advertising and public relations executive
    Best known for his advisory role in Margaret Thatcher's general election campaigns
    Co-founded the Bell Pottinger Communications group (chaired from 1985-2016)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was married three times.
    He was fined for indecent exposure after publicly masturbating in front of his Hampstead bathroom window, in full view of female passers-by (1977).
    In his memoirs, he mused that he only got his first consulting job because the agency was 'afraid of anti-Semitism from clients, so wanted a very English front-man' (the company's founders were Jewish).
    He was known for making Machiavellian witticisms like 'Morality is a job for priests, not P.R. men' and 'Morality is in the eye of the beholder.'
    His later clients included Oscar Pistorius and several dictators, most prominently Chile's Augusto Pinochet.
    When he was asked if he had ever declined to represent anyone, he reportedly answered: Robert Mugabe, six Russians who had been slapped with sanctions by the European Union, and the Labour Party.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was awarded a knighthood in 1991, and a peerage in 1998.
    He helped Margaret Thatcher and Britain’s Conservative Party win three elections.
    He originated Thatcher's famous campaign slogan 'Labour isn't working.'
    He was a modern jazz enthusiast who briefly considered a career playing the trumpet or piano.
    He officially broke the news of Margaret Thatcher's death to the media.
    He left Bell Pottinger over a dispute about the firm's representing the Gupta Brothers, radical supporters of South African President Jacob Zuma who were later revealed to be engaging in malfeasance (the firm imploded within a year of his departure over the scandal).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 88.89% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying