| Ronald Bell (uk Politician) |
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FAMILY AND EDUCATION The younger son of John Bell, Ronald was educated at Cardiff High School, and Magdalen College , Oxford University , (BA 1936, MA 1941). In 1935 he was Secretary and Treasurer of the Oxford Union Society , and President of the Oxford University Conservative Association . In 1954 he married Elizabeth Audrey, eldest daughter of Kenneth Gossell, MC, of Burwash, Sussex, and by her had two sons (Andrew is one), and two daughters. MILITARY AND CIVILIAN LIFE Bell served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve 1939 - 1946. In 1938 he had been called to the Bar at Gray's Inn , London , and practised as a barrister-at-law in London and on the South-Eastern Circuit. In 1975 he became a member of Court of the University Of Reading . POLITICAL CAREER Bell had unsuccessfully contested the Caerphilly Division of Glamorgan at a by-election in 1939, but became Conservative Member of Parliament for Newport , in May, 1945 at a by-election. He lost that seat at the 1945 General Election just two months later. He was a member of Paddington Borough Council in London 1947-49, and became Conservative MP for South Buckinghamshire in 1950, Beaconsfield from 1974. In 1974 he became a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on European Legislation . MONDAY CLUB Bell was an early (1962) and very active senior member of the Conservative Monday Club, and led the rebels in the House Of Commons against the Race Relations Act 1965 . He argued against the importing of a new law affecting freedom of speech, and freedom to employ whoever one wishes, and, supported by Enoch Powell , said the Bill made "very deep and damaging encroachments into the proper sphere of personal decision". He also felt that the Bill was an effort to achieve unwarranted equality, and that it was "concerned solely and exclusively with the intention to achieve social equality". [''Hansard'', 23 March (p.102) and 23 April 1968 , (p.102)]. He was one of the principal MP speakers at the Club's 'Law and Liberty May Day 1970 rally in Trafalgar Square , in answer to the 'Stop the Seventy Tour' campaign designed to stop the South Africa n cricket tour. Bell was still a member of the Club's Executive Council in 1971 and 1972 when, in September of the latter year, he was a principal speaker at the Club's 'Halt Immigration Now!' rally in Westminster Central Hall , following which a resolution was passed calling upon the government to halt all immigration, repeal the Race Relations Act , and start a full repatriation scheme. This was delivered to Edward Heath , then Prime Minister , who said that the government had no intention of repealing the Act. In May 1974 Club Vice-Chairman Harold Soref was attacked whilst speaking at Oxford University, and during the night Bell's son, Andrew, who was Chairman of the Oxford University Monday Club, had his bedroom window smashed by missiles. REFERENCES
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