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THE INTERVIEW LORD BELL: I'd do anything for Margaret
Independent, The (London), May 2, 2005 by Ian Burrell
The hidden hand of Lord Bell of Belgravia, purveyor of PR advice to Rupert Murdoch, intimate of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, agent of Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and longtime confidant of Baroness Thatcher, has probably left more fingerprints on modern history than any other current British media figure.
Bell is currently employed by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq to sell the idea of democracy to the Iraqi people. He is actively engaged in shaping the political futures of Russia and Ukraine, while retaining a hotline to Conservative Party headquarters and offering what help he can to put his friend Michael Howard into Downing Street.
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He enthusiastically points out that it was once said of him that 'if Alastair Campbell was a spin doctor then I was the president of the Royal College of Surgeons'. Bell has quoted the line before, only substituting Max Clifford for Campbell but there is an election on after all.
In the advertising industry he is a legend, one of the founders of Saatchi & Saatchi, which as international chairman he developed into the number one worldwide agency in 1981. He currently owns the highest-ranked British PR agency Bell Pottinger/Good Relations, whose clients include McDonald's and Vodafone. But to some he is a sinister figure, the behind-the-scenes architect of Margaret Thatcher's election victories of 1979, 1983 and 1987 and the propagandist who helped to crush the resistance of the striking coal miners. Bell is a man who " he admits " causes some on the political left to 'make the sign of the cross' when he enters the room.
Conversation, along with politics, is one of the two great passions of his life but he rarely gives interviews, perhaps mindful of protecting his own profile.
'I've had sundry different images. I was the third brother for 15 years at Saatchi & Saatchi, the mythical, unheard-of brother who was banned from talking to the outside world, so of course I was the only person the outside world wanted to talk to. Then I was Mrs Thatcher's favourite adman. Then I was her PR guru,' he says.
'I don't think I have an image,' he protests, for once unconvincing. 'I have an image inside my business and in the industry but I don't think I have an image outside that narrow, tiny piece of the population.'
He is talking about an elite with an inordinate amount of power and influence, who " when they are in trouble or need media-related advice " pick up the phone and ring Bell. Such people as Boris Yeltsin, the Sultan of Brunei, Conrad Black and Mark Thatcher.
Bell, who was once described as 'Mephistopheles to the reporter's Faust', is seen as someone who can make the story come out right (or at least the client's idea of right).
His motto is: 'Perceptions are real. If you're playing to win they have to be favourable. Your ability to persuade people to listen to you, understand what you are saying, and support you will determine whether you win or lose.'
Bell's power base is a top floor office looking out over swanky Mayfair, part of a modern five-storey block that houses his communications empire of 25 companies in three divisions and 650 staff, taking fee income of more than pounds 60m a year from an elite client list of 900 names. The neighbours include the Saudi Arabian ambassador, who lives in Crewe House, the most magnificent residence in Mayfair, a Palladian mansion with immaculate lawns. Bell's favourite eulogy was one written about him by the former editor of the Daily Mail, Sir David English, under the pseudonym Peter Lewis. Bell remembers the piece described him as 'so charming that dogs crossed the street to be stroked by me'. In return, Bell describes English as 'the much-missed and greatest editor Fleet Street ever had'.
In the midst of an election campaign, Tim Bell " whose reputation for spinning is probably rivalled only by Shane Warne " is keen to be known as more than a propagandist.
'It's a very hard thing to explain but half of me dislikes being called a top spin doctor and half of me quite likes it,' he says. 'The half that likes it I suppose is the ego bit " it makes me into something. It's no different than saying top footballer or successful surgeon. The half that dislikes it is because the image of the spin doctor is a negative image and it's a code word for deceiver and I've always known that what works in this business is the truth.'
But while he says he winces at the thought of deceit, Bell sees nothing wrong with bias, at least not when fighting a political cause. Referring to the other great British political spinmeister, he says: 'Alastair Campbell is a friend of mine. I have great admiration for his success in his career. He is as passionate about Tony Blair as I am about Margaret Thatcher. I understand the sheer bias in the way that he talks about New Labour and Tony Blair because I understand the bias I display when I talk about Margaret and the Thatcherites.'
That said, Bell thinks Campbell screwed up. 'Do I think Alastair did a good job? No, because in the end he got between the footlights and the stage. He became the story and you are not supposed to do that.'
