Talk:Merlyn Rees

Name Change
Why was it necessary for him to change his name by deed poll? If Merlyn Rees had wanted to be known as Baron Smith when he entered the Lords, he could have just indicated that preference and no deed poll would have been required. Why the deed poll when his name became Merlyn-Rees? JackofOz 20:10, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I wondered the same thing. Tony Banks became Lord Stratford without, as far as I know, needing to change his name by deed poll. The letters patent should surely dictate the new title. --Whouk (talk) 20:19, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * My wild guess is: the title you're known as (I'm fairly sure of this) has to be approved by some nob in the Ministry of Silly Names. (I'm less sure, but consider it likely that) the nobs at that time would have turned their noses up at someone calling himself Lord Firstname-Surname, so he had to change his surname. Mark1 20:29, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I see that the same applied when George Brown became Lord George-Brown. JackofOz 20:45, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Peerages have to be approved by Garter King of Arms, and the Garter of the time (quite rightly, in my opinion) thought that "Lord Firstname-Surname" was a silly way to make a title and wouldn't allow it. However, there is a general rule that surnames (except those that are also ranks, like "Duke" or "Marquis") are always permitted (subject to the addition of a territorial bit "before the comma" if the name has been used before, or is also a place name considered too important to allow a mere Baron to have it (hence Lady Scotland of Asthal)). Prospective peers faced with a disapproving Garter can therefore always change their surnames to whatever they want their titles to be, so that Garter is not really in a position to refuse to allow them as peerages. Tony Banks was in an entirely different position, wanting a territorial title, which are always allowed (unless too important), rather than a silly hyphenated invention. (The hyphen is necessary, by the way, because "Lord Merlyn Rees" would be the younger son of a Duke or Marquess with the surname "Rees" &mdash; Lloyd George had to have "of Dwyfor" stuck on the end of his Earldom because he didn't want his surname to be hyphenated in it). Proteus (Talk) 21:48, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Proteus. JackofOz 02:04, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

BAD move
I see someone's changed it to "Merlyn Rees, Baron Meryl Rees". Two points:
 * it's Merlyn, not Meryl
 * the hyphen between Merlyn and Rees (after Baron) is part of his title and should not have been dropped.

Can an admin please fix this? -- JackofOz (talk) 00:44, 19 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, I've moved the article to "Merlyn Rees, Baron Merlyn-Rees". Hope that I understood it correctly. --Tikiwont (talk) 12:35, 19 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Well done. Thank you.  --  JackofOz (talk) 21:36, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Move Request

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: page moved per request. - GTBacchus(talk) 02:57, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

Merlyn Rees, Baron Merlyn-Rees → Merlyn Rees — Not commonly known as Baron Merlyn-Rees. The name is a confusing addition and not necessary and this needs to be corected by an administrater.--Lucy-marie (talk) 09:04, 3 October 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

British, Welsh etc etc
I'm not certain, but aren't British politician article bio intros suposed to avoid using English, Welsh, Scottish & Northern Irish? GoodDay (talk) 19:13, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Merlyn Rees. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070618035533/http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/Default.htm to http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/Default.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 18:54, 8 June 2017 (UTC)

MI5 dirty tricks campaign
"Former Home Secretary, Merlyn Rees admits MI5 did wage a dirty tricks campaign against the last Labour government. New allegations of security service involvement in a plan to undermine the Wilson government are disclosed in a book out today, Who Framed Colin Wallace, by Paul Foot. It had to be rushed into print to avoid the new Official Secrets Act, which gets royal assent tomorrow."


 * .... 0mtwb9gd5wx (talk) 02:40, 26 April 2023 (UTC)