Mark Seddon
Mark Seddon is the former United Nations Correspondent and New York Bureau Chief for Al-Jazeera English TV. He reported from eighteen countries during that time, including North Korea, China, Haiti, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has interviewed, amongst others, Ban Ki-Moon, Lech Walesa, Tony Blair, Hans Blix, Michael Foot, Mia Farrow, and George Clooney. In a journalistic career spanning over twenty years, he has been Editor of Tribune and an elected member of the UK Labour Party's National Executive Committee. He has written for most British newspapers and many magazines, including The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Times, The Spectator, New Statesman, Private Eye, British Journalism Review and Country Life Magazine. For a number of years he was a Diarist at the London Evening Standard, and has also reported for, amongst others, the BBC and Sky TV. He lives in Buckingham, England.
Ireland, once hailed as the ‘Celtic Tiger’, is bust and has gone cap in hand to the IMF and the European Central Bank. Ireland was once hailed by Britain’s now […]
As Britain braces itself for a ‘winter of discontent’, with students taking to the streets in violent protest and trade unions threatening to organise waves of strikes in protest at […]
Since voters long ago stopped believing in ‘promises’ made by parties at election time, politicians now make ‘pledges’. Pledges, as opposed to promises, are made to be kept. Pledges are […]
UK FOREIGN SECRETARY, WILLIAM HAGUE’S pledge to strengthen the role of human rights in British Foreign policy and set up an independent advisory body to do just that, has done […]
The Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London was packed to overflowing last night with a galaxy of stars – and ordinary footsoldiers – who had all come to pay tribute to the late […]
By elections in Britain have not only become rarer – Members of Parliament tend to live longer these days, and are younger – but for the past decade have often […]
Each and every democracy is sovereign. Each and every country, even if it is in alliance with others, has the sovereign right to make its own choices – albeit observing […]
To watch from afar as the drama of the US mid term elections unfolded as a Brit who has lived in America, likes America and likes Americans, is deeply frustrating. […]
The journalist, campaigner and on-air reporter for the Iranian Press TV channel in London, recently became a Muslim. Here she talks about Islam, the West and her brother-in-law's legacy.
I recently wrote of the bear pit into which habitual ‘Twitterers’ can fall, and today the British newspapers are full of writer and broadcaster, Stephen Fry’s Twitter comments about women […]
Here is a huge UK domestic political story, with major ramifications for the future direction both for nuclear defence and foreign policy. It goes to the heart of Britain’s relations […]
The decision by Iraq’s high tribunal to pass a death sentence on Tariq Aziz, once the international face of dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, over “the persecution of Islamic parties”, has the feel of […]
Tony Blair‘s sister-in-law has converted to Islam after having what she describes as a “holy experience” during a visit to Iran. Journalist and broadcaster Lauren Booth, 43 – Cherie Blair’s sister – now […]
While rail passengers are being warned to expect fare increases of up to 40% – possibly even more – over the next four years it’s bonanza time in the boardrooms […]
There are seismic events which have such import, that it is possible to remember exactly where one was and what one was doing when the news first broke. I was […]
This today is the scene from battle ground Britain, as the Government announces the biggest austerity and cuts programme in living memory. The Markets reacted well, but then they would. […]
BY delicious irony, the local Member of Parliament for the impoverished Atacama region of Chile – which includes the doomed mine of San Jose – is none other Isabel Allende. […]
A thought occurred to me last night as I watched one of the BBC’s Diplomatic Correspondents, Mark Urban on the channel’s flagship current affairs programmes. Newsnight. And it was that […]
The World has watched and cheered to the rafters the human drama unfolding in Chile. That thirty three miners could be trapped underground for two months, survive and be winched […]
The Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party, the successor to the Mongolian Communist Party, has been in power for fourteen years out of sixteen years of post Communist Governments. The party asked […]
It is a phrase more often heard in London than Washington, but which has driven British defence policy since the end of the Suez crisis in 1956. It is that […]
The annual cull of the endangered pilot dolphins just off the coast of the remote Faroe Islands is barbarism.
In Britain, there is much talk of something called the ‘Big Society’. This in essence is a set of ideas being promulgated by the Prime Minister, David Cameron and the […]
Ed Balls may not have been elected Labour leader, but over the past few months he has certainly emerged from under Gordon Brown’s wing. Tribalistic, pugilistic, Balls is something the […]
TO have lived away from Britain and then to return is to realise that Britain is an increasingly parochial country, and one in which what passes for media debate is […]
Three days ago, I predicted here that Ed Miliband would be elected leader of the UK Labour Party. He was, and on the narrowest of margins. Ed Miliband is of […]
The official version for the delay in a key conference – likely to decide the future leadership of North Korea – of the ruling Workers Party, is that widespread and […]
The results of Labour’s leadership election will be known officially at 4.30pm on Saturday 25th September, as delegates to the party conference assemble in Manchester, Northern England. The contest has been […]
The late strip club owner and bon vivant, Paul Raymond would certainly have approved, as a fair number of old ‘faces’ joined author Paul Willetts for the launch of ‘Members […]
You know when a newspaper is in trouble when it begins to hire legions of new managers, starts having yet more ‘away days’, when journalists are organised into ‘pods’, and […]