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.
Iraq stands on the edge of a precipice. Widespread claims of electoral fraud have emerged over the past few days as the country went to the polls, and in Brussels, […]
During the summers of 1970s, the English countryside would in parts turn to autumn. Across the fields from my school, mighty trees yellowed and browned and the leaves would fall […]
Lord Michael Ashcroft is a Conservative Peer who does not pay any income tax on his foreign earnings. He is more usually described as a “Belize-based businessman”; Belize may not […]
The General Election has yet to be declared in Britain, at a time when the polls appear to be narrowing between the two main parties, the ruling Labour Party and […]
Michael Foot, orator extraordinaire, Parliamentarian, journalist and bibliophile. Michael Foot, radical, internationalist and Socialist, has passed away at the very grand old age of 96, and rarely can it be […]
A former British prime Minister, James Callaghan once warned that sudden crises have the knack of coming out of the blue, from places and incidents that are often small and […]
The BBC, Britain’s State broadcaster, finds itself under attack on a broad number of fronts. Over the weekend, it emerged that the Corporation is to make cuts even before it […]
Despite the British Government’s best efforts, damning Court of Appeal findings about the “dubious” treatment of former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Binyam Mohamed, have been made public. This followed from attempts […]
How quickly the media caravan moves on. How painful it must be for those left behind, who for but a short while captured global attention, but who must continue to […]
Hold the front page! Hold all the front pages (well, here in Britain at least). Last week Prime Minister Gordon Brown was persuaded, against his better judgement, to reveal his […]
If it wasn’t for the sheer misery of most of its luckless inhabitants, wouldn’t the World be a duller place without North Korea? There really is no place quite like […]
A British newspaper – the Daily Mail – claims to have received evidence from a “senior security service source” that the Israelis tipped off the British Government hours before their […]
Sabre rattling in the South Atlantic between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands has a feel of déjà vu to it. As a young student, I took to the […]
It may seem odd to those looking in that Britain, the country that stood for a while alone against Nazi Germany, a country whose supposed tolerance of immigrants is legendary […]
British Government Ministers stand accused of knowing about claims of Security Services’ complicity in torture of suspects accused of terrorism, but doing nothing to find out whether it was going […]
You have to hand it to them. The motley crew who have Sarah Palin as their star turn at their “Tea Parties” seem to have struck a chord. Tea and […]
There is an irony, although it is hardly surprising, that a very English Revolutionary and devout Parliamentarian, John Hampden, and the family name of “Hampden,” is better remembered in the […]
Three British Labour Members of Parliament and one Conservative Peer are facing charges under the Theft Act, and could if found guilty, be facing up to seven years in jail. […]
A former British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, once famously opined that a ‘week is a long-time in politics’. In which case a month is surely an age. The current British […]
It was announced this week that the United Nations Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser, Kim won-soo, will shortly travel to North […]
I’m standing in the entrance lobby to the European Parliament in Brussels, and suddenly there is a flurry of activity. A group of middle-aged Middle Eastern men, bunched together and […]
Government Ministers in Britain are fond of reminding people here – and abroad – that this country has made much more progress in limiting CO2 emissions than comparable economies. There […]
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today flies to the divided island of Cyprus ahead of a key summit officially held up as the best prospect for Cypriot unification. Both the […]
As he arrived to appear in front of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War, the chant went up “Blair to The Hague!” Demonstrators had been kept well away from […]
Britain is out of recession. It’s official. The UK Treasury today confirmed what the Government had both predicted and hoped for, that the deepest recession since the 1930s is over. […]
Al-Jazeera English Television celebrated its fourth birthday at the end of last year. Launched with much fanfare, albeit after an eighteen month delay, the channel that promised to tread where […]
Such is the nature of news and journalism, that the temptation to conflate and exaggerate the significance of events, is a hard one to resist. Run of the Mill daily […]
The big economic story this side of the pond for the past few days has been the successful hostile takeover of the iconic British chocolate and confectionary makers, Cadbury by […]
There is a rough rule of thumb that British political leaders are obliged to contend with, and with mixed feelings. Just as their domestic polls begin to drop, foreigners begin […]
In little over a hundred days time, Britain will go to the polls, in what many are already describing as a “game changing” General Election. All elections are important, and […]