Talk:Johnny Mercer (politician)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Johnny Mercer (politician) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

This page is about an active politician who is running for office or has recently run for office, is in office and campaigning for re-election, or is involved in some current political conflict or controversy. Because of this, this article is at increased risk of biased editing, talk-page trolling, and simple vandalism.

Biography: Military / Politics and Government C‑class

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
	This article is supported by the military biography work group (assessed as Low-importance).
	This article is supported by the politics and government work group (assessed as Low-importance).

England C‑class Low‑importance

	England portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject England, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of England on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EnglandWikipedia:WikiProject EnglandTemplate:WikiProject EnglandEngland-related articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Military history: Biography / British / European / Post-Cold War C‑class

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles

C

This article has been rated as C-class on the project's quality scale.

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

Associated task forces:
/
	Military biography task force
	British military history task force
	European military history task force
	Post-Cold War task force

Politics of the United Kingdom C‑class Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Politics of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Politics of the United KingdomWikipedia:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomTemplate:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomPolitics of the United Kingdom articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Conservatism C‑class Low‑importance

	Conservatism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Conservatism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of conservatism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ConservatismWikipedia:WikiProject ConservatismTemplate:WikiProject ConservatismConservatism articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Devon C‑class Low‑importance

	Devon portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Devon, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Devon on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DevonWikipedia:WikiProject DevonTemplate:WikiProject DevonDevon articles
C	This article has been rated as C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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:

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

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

‹ The template Edit semi-protected is being considered for merging. ›

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]