Andy Bell

Ex-investigative journalist World In Action, Panorama; ex-editor Searchlight. Retired. PAFC supporter. Blog: Substack: @andybell2000

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

In November 1943, a German plane attacked a British motor torpedo boat, MTB 73, at La Maddelena, on the northern coast of Sardinia. The boat was bombed and sank, two crew members died, and my father, Sam Bell, the boat’s coxswain, was wounded and shipped off to hospital.

Recently, I decided to try to find out more about what exactly happened.

I really wasn’t prepared for what I found.

https://t.co/LBBSYSTwIM

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

The conviction of Russell Brand for rape and three sexual assaults has produced an outbreak of righteous indignation by those driven to attack the BBC at every opportunity.

The Telegraph today has let rip, targeting those it calls his BBC 'enablers'.

But not everyone handing out lectures on probity is necessarily best placed to do so.

Step forward Liz Kershaw...

My latest Substack:
https://t.co/GikbjkrFOd

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

The conviction of Russell Brand for rape and three sexual assaults has produced an outbreak of righteous indignation by those driven to attack the BBC at every opportunity.

The Telegraph today has let rip, targeting those it calls his BBC 'enablers'.

But not everyone handing out lectures on probity is necessarily best placed to do so.

Step forward Liz Kershaw...

https://t.co/GikbjkrFOd

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

Lessons here: https://t.co/NOYqwp3Tmc

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

@tenepod DM me

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

Another one of mine, I’m afraid

[Unite Against Fascism @uaf]

@Searchlight_mag Just came across this in April 1984 mag edition. Great reply.

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

The crucial moment in the Swedish elections, probably the moment the far right were beaten...

[Joakim 🌹🇳🇴🇪🇺 @joakial_]

ABBA’s Benny Andersson appeared at the Social Democratic Party’s final election rally in Stockholm today.

[@Searchlightmagazine @Searchlight_mag]

His stunts have often descended into farce, but Danny Tommo’s ability to mobilise hundreds of black-clad, masked racists in Dover last weekend shows that he cannot simply be laughed off.

Read the Danny Tommo story here:

https://t.co/8UCe2lhYko

@uaf @AntiRacismDay

[@Searchlightmagazine @Searchlight_mag]

Danny Tommo’s latest anti-migrant stunt descended into farce as the Patriot Platform leader threatened suicide, retched on camera and spent hours shivering in the Solent watching asylum seekers being processed.

Read more here:

https://t.co/ULIbGSe6E5

@uaf @AntiRacismDay

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

This week marks the anniversary of a historic stand against American fascism, at Peekskill, NY, in 1949.

And at the heart of it was the great black American singer, Paul Robeson.

My recent article for Searchlight.

https://t.co/Rn2Q2h5GM7

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

45 years ago this month, Searchlight broke one of the most important stories it has ever investigated.

British nazis were planning to bomb the Notting Hill Carnival but were thwarted by Searchlight’s mole, Ray Hill.

I was there. Here's the inside story.

https://t.co/PECHYEWBDr

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

https://t.co/CXpyhTZBs5

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

45 years ago this July, ITV's World in Action broadcast an investigation into gun-running by members of a fascist group in Leicester.

I had a small hand in it, but a rather larger hand in developments when the guilty nazis fled across the sea to Ireland.

You can read about it here:

https://t.co/iSqhGNSbCA

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

On the anniversary of the bombing and destruction of the Basque town of Guernica by the German and Spanish fascists in 1937 it seems an apt moment to share this: these were amongst my mum's things and belonged to her half-brother Alfred Crossing.

It's a book of paintings, scenes from the Spanish Civil War, published in 1936 by the Propaganda Offices of the CNT and FAI (the National Confederation of Workers and the Iberian Anarchist Federation) .

Also a militia cap of the Spanish Republican Navy with an FAI/CNT badge attached.

Alfred was in the Royal Navy and during the Spanish Civil War his ship was involved in maintaining the international arms embargo. It might also have put in to one of the Republican port cities, possibly Barcelona where the book was published, to evacuate UK nationals.

He later died on HMS Gurkha. But somewhere he picked these up, suggesting certainly contact and possibly sympathy with the Republican cause, and in our house they are much treasured.

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

Tommy Robinson has taken time out from his month-long tour of America to remind us that, a year ago, he was in “solitary confinement”.

At the time he was also complaining that his prison regime – he was locked up for contempt of court –  amounted to “mental torture”.

Today he is reflecting that, a year on, it’s been some journey from that to the halls of the US Congress where, this week, he addressed a closed meeting of Republicans.

It was indeed a year ago and, coincidentally, some thoughts which I wrote up at the time popped up in my Facebook memories today.

So here they are again. A timely reminder of what a shameless liar he really is:

"Tommy Robinson doesn’t know the meaning of solitary confinement or ‘mental torture’".

https://t.co/a2SUO609K0

[Andy Bell @andybell2000]

The Supreme Court of Belarus has announced that it will begin criminal proceedings against Antanas Gecas, for genocide.

The defendant has been dead for 25 years.

For anyone who followed Searchlight’s investigations in the late 1980s into Nazi war criminals sheltering in Britain, the announcement will ring bells. It certainly did for me.

I was involved when Searchlight first identified Gecas as a war crimes suspect living in Edinburgh, in December 1986. I've written about it here:

https://t.co/AF7swAKEel