Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/James Maitland Balfour

This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record.
The result of the debate was keep. —Korath (Talk) 01:30, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

James Maitland Balfour

Notability not established. Appears to be a run-of-the mill MP, who died young and had 8 kids. Why does that establish Wikipedia notability? Smoddy | ειπετε 16:01, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

• James Maitland Balfour was the father of Arthur Balfour, a prominent prime minister at the beginning of the 20th century during the "Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy" - as discussed in the book of the same name by David Cannadine. I followed his link because I wanted to know the kind of family that Arthur Balfour came from, since he staunchly backed the preservation of the House of Lord's traditional powers. Thanks to it, I found out other aristocratic links within the Balfour family, through James' mother and through his own marriages and those of his children. Joshyoua 03:46, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)
• I followed the link for the same reason as Joshyoua. But maybe the solution would be to say more about Arthur Balfour's background in his own article. The most important point, that Arthur Balfour was the nephew of Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury is already there. I agree with Smoddy that this article doesn’t suggest that James Maitland Balfour deserves an entry in his own right. Chelseaboy 18:06, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)
• Comment: This was apparently never listed on vfd, so I'm putting it on today's page. —Korath (Talk) 03:38, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
• Merge with Arthur Balfour, the author of the Balfour Declaration leading to the partition of Palestine. —Wahoofive | Talk 05:54, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Keep all Members of Parliament. sjorford →•← 09:05, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Keep MPs are inherently notable --Bucephalus 11:03, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Keep, what those two said. Meelar (talk) 11:03, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. Member of UK House of Commons and of notable UK political family. Capitalistroadster 12:02, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. Elected MP of what was at the time the world's foremost power. Would you delete a US congressman or senator? Average Earthman 12:09, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. N-Man^talk 12:17, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Weak vote to merge and redirect as per Wahoofive. Yes, I would vote to delete (with a merge) a US legislator who had not done anything considered significantly influential (other than being related to an important one). How many MPs have there been since the Magna Carta? Ignoring the Pokemon Comparative Importance Test, are they all important enough and verifiable enough for articles? Wikipedia is not Burke's Peerage. Barno 15:14, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

  By my very rough calculations, there have probably been somewhere around 5000 to 8000 MPs since the Reform Act of 1832. I don't think this is too many for Wikipedia to handle. Being a member of the national legislature of a major world power is an important enough feat in itself, without any further achievements. And information on MPs, even 19th century ones, is certainly verifiable. sjorford →•← 15:39, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Keep. Wikipedia is not paper, either. All officials democratically elected to national bodies of world powers are inherently notable. -- 8^D ^gab 15:41, 2005 Apr 8 (UTC)
  • "Democratically"? This is 1841 we are talking about, here. ☺ Uncle G 18:16, 2005 Apr 8 (UTC)
• Keep. All MPs are inherrently notable. Dave the Red (talk) 19:17, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. While I would not go as far as making a blanket statement that all MPs are notable, I think I would be hard-pressed to find one that is not notable enough for inclusion in wikipedia. Indrian 00:53, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)
• Keep. Mackensen (talk) 01:00, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.