David Mellor

David Mellor in 2022

David John Mellor (born 12 March 1949) is a British broadcaster, barrister, and former politician. As a member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John Major as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1990–1992) and Secretary of State for National Heritage (April–September 1992), before resigning in 1992. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Putney from 1979 to 1997.

Quotes

• The press – the popular press – is drinking in the Last Chance Saloon.
  • Quoted in Roy Greenslade, "A decade of diplomacy," The Guardian (5 February 2001)
  • Comment made in 1989 after a series of salacious stories in the tabloid press.

• The tabloids are like animals, with their own behavioural patterns. There’s no point in complaining about them, any more than complaining that lions might eat you.
  • Quoted in The Independent (3 November 1992) following his resignation in September of that year.

• Lawyers are like rhinoceroses: thick-skinned, short-sighted, and always ready to charge.
  • Question Time BBC1 (3 December 1992).

• And I'd like to say this to [Sir James Goldsmith] ... who has got nothing to be smug about, and I would like to say that 1,500 votes is a derisory total. We have shown tonight that the Referendum Party is dead in the water, and Sir James can get off back to Mexico knowing your attempt to buy the British political system has failed.
  • Quoted in Brian Cathcart Were you still up for Portillo? (Penguin Books, 1997), pp. 63-4
  • From a speech following his defeat at the 1997 General Election. Goldsmith was another candidate in the Putney constituency.

• There is no design involved. It would look tawdry down the wrong end of a beach in Torremolinos. This isn't a case of just not wanting it in my backyard. This area is historically significant with listed buildings and it's next to the Tower of London, which is a world heritage site.
  • Quoted in Anil Dawar, "'Build a tower block? Not in our dockyard,'" The Telegraph (30 May 2006).
  • Comment on the proposed construction of a 17-storey block of flats near his home in the St Katharine Docks, London.

Quotations about David Mellor

• The Minister for Fun.
  • Common epithet used to describe the Secretary of State for National Heritage. Cited by Mary Braid and Jason Bennetto in "The Mellor Affair: When the fun stopped" The Independent on Sunday (26 June 1992).

• Since the great days of Jimmy Greaves, it's the only time anyone's managed to score five times in a Chelsea shirt.
  • Tony Banks, Mellor's close friend who was also a fan of Chelsea F.C., after a tabloid newspaper story (falsely) claimed Mellor wore the club's football kit during sex. Quoted in "The wit and wisdom of Tony Banks," BBC News (8 January 2006). The assertion was invented by publicist Max Clifford who was representing Mellor's former mistress at the time.

• This is the first time in ages that David Mellor has done the decent thing.
  • Bill Hagerty, editor of The People, on Mellor's resignation following the revelations he had received a holiday gift from the daughter of a leading member of the PLO in 1990. Quoted in "1992: Mellor signs over sex scandal," BBC News: On This Day (undated).