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Simon Tisdall (born 1953) is a columnist for The Guardian newspaper and was an assistant editor of the publication.
Tisdall was born in Manchester and educated at Holland Park School in Kensington, one of the first comprehensives. [1] Tisdall had attended Dame Allan's School in Newcastle for two years before the family moved south to London. [2] His father, John Tisdall, worked for the BBC, and his mother, Mary Pritchard, was a newspaper columnist and BBC radio journalist. [2] [3]
From 1971 to 1974, Simon Tisdall studied history, politics and philosophy at Downing College, Cambridge. [1]
He joined the Guardian Foreign News Desk in 1978. [2]
Tisdall has criticised Britain's close ties with Saudi Arabia and British involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led invasion into Yemen. In 2018, he wrote that "the UK-Saudi alliance is pernicious, encouraging the worst in both sides, and deeply corrosive of 'our values'. [Prime Minister Theresa] May’s main focus is not on the unnumbered Yemeni civilians who continue to die as a result of the Saudi-led, British-backed bombing campaign." [4] Tisdall commends Angela Merkel's "brave, open-door migration policy". [5]
Tisdall wrote that Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed "should hand back his Nobel Peace Prize over his actions in the breakaway region" of Tigray. [6]
In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tisdall called for reforms to the United Nations which included an increase in the number of members of the United Nations Security Council and an end to the permanent members' right of veto. [7]
Tisdall's final column as The Observer's Foreign Affairs Commentator was published on 29 March 2025. [8]
