Martin Bell OBE delivers the 2015 John McCarthy Lecture

March 5th 2015

Martin Bell took us on an emotional journey through some of the world’s worst conflicts of the last fifty years which he has reported on. He shared with us his thoughts on the futility of force of arms, of the hopelessness of the human condition once battle is joined. He made the point that in the century since the War to End all Wars, where 90 per cent of the casualties were combatants, we had reversed that statistic so that now, 90 per cent of war’s casualties are civilians and, all too often, children. That’s progress for you.

He explained the strange world of the House of Commons which he entered in 1997 after winning a by-election against the Tory incumbent who was apparently safe behind a 20,000 majority. He was honest enough to admit he made little difference to the murky world of politics, but felt one should be prepared to stand up for what one believes in – even if, ultimately, it might change nothing.

He finished with a plea to his younger listeners, who made up about a third of his audience, to lift their heads from their small screens to see the wide world for what it was, and to try to make it better.

Our sincere thanks go to Martin for taking the time to come to Hazlegrove to talk to us for our annual John McCarthy Lecture during our 2015 Festival of Literature week.

We are delighted to report that the event raised £358.03 with voluntary contributions for John McCarthy’s charity of choice, Freedom From Torture.

A note from John McCarthy...

"I’m delighted that the Festival of Literature went so well and that Martin Bell connected so strongly with the audience, especially the children.
And fantastic that your raised so much for FFT – thank you once again!"

Some comments from the children...