Talk:Johnny Mercer (politician)

DoB

Ought to give date-of-birth.

And is he any relation to Patrick Mercer, the other Army officer turned Tory MP? If not, it should say not, since many people would like to know. Valetude (talk) 23:30, 7 June 2015 (UTC)

I don't think we need to state and prove a negative. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 07:02, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

His Twitter account (which is presumably self-edited) gives his date of birth as March 17.

https://twitter.com/JohnnyMercerUK

[User:Meltingpot|Meltingpot] (talk) 05:09, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

Potentially politically biased editing

There have been substantial edits to this page by Impsfan on 10/10/18 - though they are well sourced, they may have been made specifically to undermine the character of the subject of this page. Checking Impsfan's activity, it appears they have a habit of activist editing of Conservative party politician profiles.

There is a substantial edit history here Impsfan edit history

This calls into question the likelihood that the edits have been made in keeping with the guidelines on Wikipedia:Point of view

As such I am conscious that these edits (particularly under "Controversies" which appear to be particularly questionable in terms of bias) may need revision (but of course willing to enter a discussion with Impsfan about this).

Many thanks libsec (talk) 18:42, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Hi libsec

You are partially correct. A while back I read a lengthy newspaper profile regarding an MP and then googled them for information. I read the Wiki age for them and realised it was really out of date and just included text copied verbatim from their own website. Since then I have been updating pages so they don't arbitrarily stop at the date someone was lost bothered (often circa the 2015 general election!) and including other information for balance. You will note everything is sourced and I provide the counter-point on all occasions where there is one. I have included positive information, such as promotions, election wins and membership of committees, and neutral information, such as past career and dates of birth etc. Although I have done a couple of edits to MPs from other political parties, there is a bias towards the Conservative Party because I have ended up doing it thematically and it is more efficient to included links from that context. Rest assured, I have just about come to the end of the MPs from that party and the next stage will be more edits to update those from the other ones.

Many thanks Impsfan (talk) 20:40, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Impsfan - I appreciate the response, thanks for the detail. Hope you take no offence if I may have a tinker with this some other time when at a loose end!

libsec (talk) 21:52, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

libsec Far from taking offence, I would value it. Inevitably, in trying to 'balance' things on a page about a politician I run the risk of it going too far the other way, so a critical look is good. Impsfan (talk) 20:25, 20 October 2018 (UTC)

Problem with medal ribbon - wrong photo but I can't see why

Hi all, the photo shows a plain ribbon - it should have the rosette, But the file name seems correct for the rosette version. Can anyone assist? Springnuts (talk) 22:22, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Defending his wife's honour

There's quite a few reliable sources about the time the subject of the page attempted to defend his wife's honour after she was called a prostitute in the comments section of the Plymouth Herald which led to the Plymouth Herald trending on twitter. Does anyone have any objections to me adding this to the page? Sources:

• https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mp-attempts-defend-wifes-13443213
• https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/plymouth-herald-twitter-johnny-mercer-2126242
• https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/viral/heres-why-the-plymouth-herald-comments-section-is-trending-nationally-37438079.html
• https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahalothman/johnny-mercer-tory-twitter-meme-plymouth-herald-comments
• https://dorseteye.com/johnny-mercer-mp-and-that-pesky-comments-section-in-the-plymouth-herald/
• https://thecritic.co.uk/mercers-friendly-fire/

80.47.137.128 (talk) 21:12, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

Can we add the line "In October 2018, Mercer took to Twitter to defend his wife's honour after she was labelled a prostitute in the comments section of the Plymouth Herald. This led to the Plymouth Herald trending on Twitter." See the Talk Page for list of sources, including national newspapers, that covered this. 80.47.137.128 (talk) 17:45, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

 Not done. This is merely tabloid fodder. Even wording it like this would be a violation of WP:NPOV. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 21:54, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi, can you direct me to the wikipedia definition of "tabloid fodder" and where in the rules it states it's not allowed? Thanks 80.47.137.128 (talk) 22:13, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

See WP:ONUS –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 22:23, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, but I was asking about why you say it's "tabloid fodder" when it's also been mentioned in The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/10/19/boris-johnson-praises-tory-mp-branded-theresa-mays-government/ and The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/05/mps-social-media-twitter. Currently your argument seems to be "I don't think it should be in, therefore there's no consensus".

Stating WP:ONUS on it's own is not sufficient reason. Please see WP:IMPLICITCONSENSUS which states "All edits should be explained (unless the reason for them is obvious)—either by clear edit summaries indicating the reason why the change was made, or by discussion on the associated talk page." 80.47.137.128 (talk) 22:32, 24 October 2020 (UTC)

Controversial Twitter activity

Mercer's tweets in late December surrounding his pledge to end veterans' homelessness are newsworthy and of public interest. A well worded and referenced section was added to cover this, but was removed a few hours later. I propose that the section be reinstated. 94.198.176.38 (talk) 15:28, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

The relevant Hansard link is [1]. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:46, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

His birthday says 17th march on twitter — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7C:DB33:8300:AD60:B055:5395:2324 (talk) 23:12, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Birth name

Curiously, FreeBMD confirms here that his birthname was indeed John Luther Mercer. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:42, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

Can his entry at Companies House here be regarded as WP:RS? Alternatively, here's a secondary source from a local newspaper.Martinevans123 (talk) 10:13, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Companies house, along with FreeBMD, fail WP:BLPPRIMARY, surely. -- DeFacto (talk). 13:33, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Which is why I added the report by Carl Eve at plymouthherald.co.uk. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:35, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

He's also named here, here, and in The London Gazette here (which also gives his Service Number). Martinevans123 (talk) 13:51, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

@Martinevans123, I didn't see any inline sources in the article supporting either though and I'm not sure what value either add. I wouldn't object to his middle name being included, if supported by a good quality RS, but can't imagine what use his service number is. -- DeFacto (talk). 19:50, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

It's his birth name. That's a pretty basic fact about a person. I can see no good reason whatsoever to exclude it. Martinevans123 (talk) 19:52, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

As I said, I wouldn't object to it, but it needs an inline citation in the article body to support it. -- DeFacto (talk). 20:03, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Yes, of course. Which of the sources would suggest? Martinevans123 (talk) 20:10, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

I don't know. I wouldn't use the PlymouthLive article as its infobox mirrored pretty closely what the Wiki article then said - so do we know that it didn't use Wiki as it's source? Business Insider is reporting what Russia's foreign ministry called him, so we'd have to attribute it to them if we used that. Does the LBC podcast intro page qualify per WP:BLP as a "high-quality" source? -- DeFacto (talk). 21:11, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Yes, PlymouthLive might be a wiki-mirror. You think an attribution to Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia) will clarify this fact for the reader? Or using LBC? Hahaha. That his middle name is "Luther" is just a simple fact. We both know that, don't we? Good job we have the trusty The London Gazette entry (compete with Service Number)! Martinevans123 (talk) 21:28, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Now added. Just for completeness, there is another Gazette source here. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:16, 2 April 2024 (UTC)

Service number

Is there any WP:RS source for this? What might be acceptable? Although "servicenumber" does not appear as a parameter at Template:Infobox officeholder in any case. Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:36, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

@Martinevans123, what value does it add to the subject matter? -- DeFacto (talk). 19:41, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Not sure, although it must have some value, as it's a standard infobox parameter for military personnel. If you strongly disagree, you could suggest that it's deprecated at Template talk:Infobox military person. Martinevans123 (talk) 19:49, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

The fact that it's in the template doesn't justify including it, even if it was supported in the article body somewhere, does it? -- DeFacto (talk). 20:05, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Why is it in the template? Martinevans123 (talk) 20:09, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps it's more of a public thing somewhere else. The US perhaps? -- DeFacto (talk). 20:31, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

I really don't know about that. But I see that it's explained at Service number#United Kingdom. I do know that's it's a useful thing to have if you are engaged in genealogy that involves military personnel (not that such activity is relevant here). Martinevans123 (talk) 20:39, 27 March 2024 (UTC)