Biography:
About: "After 19 years as an Assistant Editor and columnist on The Times, Mary Ann Sieghart has left to pursue a portfolio life. She now writes a weekly column, every Monday, in The Independent. She presents Profile on Radio 4, chairs the Social Market Foundation, is an equity partner in the new website, The Browser, and sits on the board of Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust and on the Council of Tate Modern" - ref.
Education: Wadham College, Oxford (first-class degree) in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Career: Financial Times: Eurobond Correspondent, Lex columnist. The Washington Post, as the Laurence Stern Fellow, 1984; City Editor of Today newspaper (from its launch in 1986); The Economist: Political Correspondent; joined The Times in 1988: Comment page editor, Arts Editor, Chief Political leader-writer, acting editor of the paper on Sundays. Left The Times in June 2007, See: Mary Ann Sieghart leaves Times, by Stephen Brook. Joined The Independent in July 2010
Current position/role: Commentator at The Independent
Other roles/Main role: Britain editor of the The Browser website
Other activities: see Wikipedia
Disclosures:
Viewpoints/Insight: Was an outspoken supporter of Tony Blair's 'reform agenda'
Broadcast media: http://www.maryannsieghart.com/radio
Video:
Controversy/Criticism:
Awards/Honours:
Scoops:
Other: Daughter of Paul Sieghart, a human rights lawyer, campaigner, broadcaster and author, and Felicity Ann Sieghart, chairman of the National Association for Gifted Children, magistrate and later managing director of the Aldeburgh Cinema
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Articles: 2012
- How to change the shape of the establishment in one generation - Children at grammar schools learn faster, in an atmosphere in which excellence is treasured - 21st May
- Get new fathers to stay at home with the baby and we all gain - We'll know equality has arrived when we ask a man 'what will you do after the baby is born?' - 14th May
- So Boris is more popular than Cameron. But he won't make PM - Any Conservative MPs wondering how they can replace their leader with the Mayor can sober up - 7th May
- We need more independents to break the stranglehold - Over the past few decades we’ve become much less tribal in our allegiances - 30th April
- Clegg needs to find an exit route from Lords reform - It’s not as if the Lords perform badly. They have been doing a fine job recently - 23rd April
- How dodgy postal votes may decide our next government - One of the biggest problem with postal votes is that they don't guarantee you a secret ballot - 16th April
- Judge women on their ability – not on their age or their looks - When young they are patronised, when at their peak of maturity they are deemed to be past it - 9th April
- Labour's wrong if it thinks it's time for a shift to the left - If Labour had been less arrogant and complacent in Bradford West, it could have won - 2nd April
- Is 50p a year really too much to end this corruption? - 81 per cent of us believe people give money to parties in the hope of favours or special access - 26th March
- The more leaks the better. Open discussion makes good policy - Tax proposals should be scrutinised, tested and challenged before they are put into law, not after - 19th March
- Be glad you live in Britain, not the US, if you're gay or a woman - Contraception is free and uncontroversial, sex education sensible and gay relationships are becoming normalised - 12th March
- Cameron needs more blue-sky thinking to win the next election - Steve Hilton knew the Tories wouldn't be heard if they seemed out of touch and out-of-date - 5th March
- Lords reform is a fight that Nick Clegg will never win - Why is Nick Clegg so determined to throw everything at a policy that will win few votes – and lose many more - 27th February
- You don't have to believe in God to cherish the Church - It is precisely because the Church is established that it feels a duty to serve the whole nation - 20th February
- The dreamers who gave us the eurozone stand condemned - This was a policy blunder born of arrogance and insouciance at the highest levels. And it can't easily be reversed - 30th January
- When the people can see what fairness is, why can't Miliband? - At the last election, many Labour supporters stayed at home because they were angry about the party's position on welfare - 23rd January
- What happens when even your supporters don't believe in you? - The problem is that Ed Miliband is too clever, unlike Neil Kinnock, who didn’t seem clever enough - 16th January
- What women see in the mirror is self-hatred - Women feel depressed because the 'ideal shape' is almost as remote from reality as Barbie's - 9th January
- If I can stick to a New Year resolution, so can anyone - The key is to be kinder than usual to yourself, and to get the stick-carrot ratio right - 2nd January
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Articles: 2011
- We're all Greeks now when the right to park is under threat - How would we feel if we realised we had no democratic power over our economy? - 26th December
- It's up to parents to resist the tyranny of the pink princesses - I begged my parents for a carpentry set. Would I have dared brave the boys' floor at Hamleys? - 19th December
- We can't expect decisions from two parties so much at odds - The best hope for ending Coalition differences is the eurozone collapsingBold text - 12th December
- Victims of press intrusion pay, the perpetrators get away with it - Stolen secrets are junk food for the soul. Popular journalism can be made from less toxic materials - 14th November
- No one likes bailing out spendthrifts – but we'll have to - We have pretty strong feelings about fairness and who is deserving and undeserving - 7th November
- Giving women power requires action - But it'll be worth it - companies with more diverse boards produce higher returns for shareholders - 31st October
- Cameron picks a fight when he doesn't need to - Let's play a game of fantasy headlines – or rather nightmare headlines - 24th October
- A PM that got his fingers burnt - Why was no one was willing - or able - to stand up to Mr Fox? - 17th October
- They are all Eurosceptics now - The Coalition partners aren't as far apart on Europe as people believe - 10th October
- Cameron's problem with women - Only four of the 29 ministers who attend Cabinet are female - 3rd October
- The problem at the heart of Labour - Labour must display a high degree of humility about its record - 26th September
- Clegg's chance to fill a vacancy - The other two parties have made room for the Lib Dems - 19th September
- The time to act on banking is now - To pause before deciding how to act would be a great mistake - 12th September
- Time to call the SNP's bluff - The brand needs to die and be reborn - 5th September
- A generation in love with itself - Narcissists live in a fantasy world – they think they are better, richer, more attractive and more intelligent than they are - 29th August 2011
- How far right are we going? - If Cameron isn't careful, he will find that Miliband has painted a more coherent picture of the causes of the riots - 15th August
- It's economics versus politics - The economics demand as much austerity as can be achieved - 8th August
- How austerity is changing us - Instead of seeking gratification by going shopping, we are achieving it by finding new ways of saving money - 1st August
- Time to overturn the tyranny of porn - It is no longer enough to be successful. You must be gorgeous too - 25th July
- And the real winners will be ... - This scandal is better news for Labour and the Lib Dems than for the Tories - 18th July
- Power has shifted back to the people - Politicians will be more worried about voters than a discredited company - 11th July
- Where have all the europhiles gone? - The arguments for joining the euro have proved bankrupt - 4th July
- Trouble is, David shares Ed's faults - Would things be different if the Labour leader's brother were in charge? - 13th June
- You can't be all things to all shoppers - Shops like John Lewis offer sturdy value, unflashy goods - 6th June
- A 'war' we should fight no longer - There is a more rational way of dealing with the drug problem - 30th May
- Enough of men who crash and burn - As a journalist I love political scandal. But as citizen? Less so - 23rd May
- If it ain't broken Nick, don't try to fix it - Messing with the Lords will make Clegg look out of touch - 16th May
- Long live the king – if he's harmless - If Charles doesn't wind his neck in, the public won't put up with him - 2nd May
- Vote Yes for evolution, not revolution - The anger and scaremongering is so disproportionate to the reform you wonder if they're all looking at the same voting system - 25th April
- Cameron's betrayal of the middle class - Voters who believe in aspiration will be penalised by the Conservatives - 18th April
- China has little to fear from dissent - The Chinese are generally far more content with their lot than the Egyptians - 11th April
- From the sublime to the ridiculous - Without definition and direction Miliband may end up Labour's William Hague - 4th April
- State school is PM's only option - Cameron's Etonian background was his big handicap when he ran for leader - 28th March
- No wonder Clegg looked miserable. There was little for the Lib Dems to cheer - All Budgets are political, but this one had to satisfy two parties, not just one – and had to do so with no extra money - 24th March
- What fallout for our energy policy? - For the Lib Dems, nuclear could be as bad as tuition fees - 21st March
- Clegg can still deliver for his Party - Talk of what Lib Dems have achieved in power is now allowed - 14th March
- We've been blackmailed long enough - In other walks of life, people take pride in their work because of what they do - 7th March
- Nobody likes quotas, but they work - If politics has anything to teach business, it's that progress is achingly slow - 28th February
- The dawning of Arab democracy - Most Jordanians don't want a revolution of the French kind; they just want a king who reigns rather than rules - 21st February
- Good riddance to society of suspects - You don't build a Big Society on the back of mutinous, resentful volunteers - 14th February
- The war between the generations - Because the young are less likely to vote, politicians pay less heed to them - 7th February
- t's not just the middle being squeezed - Unemployment affects one in ten workers; but rising prices hit all of us - 31st January
- Even the rich can feel left out in Davos - That invitation to Davos – did yours get lost in the post? Yes, mine too - 29th January
- Ed Balls will be a disaster for Labour - Like Gordon Brown, he believes he's superior to almost everyone - 24th January
- No wonder they've got a drink problem - Why do younger people binge drink more than their parents? - 17th January
- There are lessons for us from Arizona - People can read whatever biased trash they like but at least there is a corrective when they watch or listen to the news - 10th January
- Start the world – I want to get on - Brain not quite engaged. Eyes a bit dim. Energy levels still low. I think I now know how a hedgehog feels in the spring - 6th January
- Let's resolve to embrace our flaws - If you feel good about yourself, you start to look good – even if you are 80 - 3rd January
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Articles: 2010
- Drunk on a spirit of anarchy - Much better simply to boycott Topshop or Vodafone if you feel strongly - 20th December
- A party that is growing up in public - The students have stomped out but grown-ups may decide to vote Lib Dem - 13th December
- O fathers, where art thou? - The pay gap between men and women is wider here than in other rich countries - 6th December
- Too much democracy can be a bad thing - The wisdom of crowds is not at its best on the minutiae of policy - 29th November
- How we avoided Ireland's nightmare - If you think our situation is bad, thank Blair's hesitancy and Brown's obduracy for things not being a whole lot worse - 22nd November
- MPs prepare for fight of their lives - The rest of us have had to work harder to keep our jobs; now they will too - 15th November
- Obama's strength is now his weakness - The charisma he once displayed so powerfully has dried up - 7th November
- Restore sanity in the debate on drugs - Arresting people for possessing small amounts of cannabis is a waste of time - 1st November
- Not every pensioner needs a bus pass - After housing costs, 48 per cent are in the top half of income distribution - 25th October
- A touch of decency in politics - The Coalition has brought a return to civilised ways of doing things - 18th October
- The perils of giving in to pester power - If you reward those who shout loudest, the cacophony will become unbearable - 11th October
- Cameron is far happier than his party - He finds coalitions easy and party conferences tiresome - 4th October
- Miliband's threat to the Coalition - This isn't some crazy firebrand who is bound to scare off middle England - 27th September
- This Coalition is going to last - Yes, the party's poll ratings have fallen since the election. But they always do - 20th September
- Blair has much to teach his successors - You have to be prepared to let your advisers go when they've had enough - 6th September
- How power turns virtue into vice - Like Blair with Bush, so Clegg seems to be with David Cameron, too flattered now that he is in the big room with the most powerful people. He no longer seems himself - 30th August
- It was good timing for the parents, less so for the baby - Prime ministers and babies never used to mix – except on the campaign trail, perhaps, where a quick peck on the cheek or chuck under the chin was allowed - 25th August
- Cuts are one thing, revenue another - If tax takes a fall, we could end up with cuts and a spiral back into recession - 23rd August
- House prices are finally falling. Good - Housing boom has redistributed wealth to the middle-aged from the young - 16th August
- Saving lives can't be only criterion - If we were to cut the drink-drive limit and keep current sanctions, we would have some of Europe's toughest laws - 9th August
- What deterrence needs is ambiguity - Our main enemy now is not even a state – it’s organisations like al-Qa’ida - 2nd August
- Rise and rise of 'Oberons' - We witnessed a new political phenomenon, a sort of political cross-dressing - 22nd July
- Women on top? You've got to be joking - 'The Future is Female', they said. But the future has always failed to materialise - 19th July
- Mandelson's vanity came before the party interest - His mistake was overlooking the possibility of a coalition with the Lib Dems - 12th July
- Prime Minister is backing the old politics - Britain’s most refreshing political observer on why Cameron is wrong on voting reform - 5th July
- Two of a kind - a coalition of style and substance - Looks, homes, dress sense: Nick Clegg and David Cameron have much more in common than a few shared areas of policy - 13th May 2010
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