Mark Steel

Mark Steel

Mark Steel in 2008
Born 4 July 1960
Swanley, Kent, England
Medium Stand-up, Television, Radio
Nationality British
Years active 1983-present
Genres Political satire
Subject(s) Politics
Influences Tony Cliff, Alexei Sayle
Notable works and roles The Mark Steel Lectures
The Mark Steel Revolution
The Mark Steel Solution
Mark Steel's in Town
Website www.marksteelinfo.com

Mark Steel (born 4 July 1960)[1] is an English socialist columnist, author and comedian.[2] A stand-up comedian known for his left-wing beliefs (he was a long-standing member of the Socialist Workers Party[3] before he resigned in 2007[4]), he has made many appearances on radio and television shows as a guest panellist, and has written regular columns in printed media. He is perhaps best known for presenting The Mark Steel Lectures, The Mark Steel Revolution, The Mark Steel Solution, and Mark Steel's in Town.

Early life

Steel was adopted 10 days after he was born.[5] He had a close relationship with his adoptive parents.[6] He grew up in Swanley, Kent.

He traced his biological mother later in life but she said that she did not want to know him.[5]

In the late 1970s his father suffered a mental breakdown and was placed into care at Stone House Hospital. He says that his first encounter with social injustice was when he saw how mentally-ill patients were being treated in that hospital. The shabby conditions of the home reinforced Steel's political beliefs.[7]

Career

Steel has given varying accounts of his early life: he became bored with constantly being asked how he had started in comedy and took to telling the questioner the first thing that came into his head. He is often described as having worked as a television repair man[8] but confesses that he has no technical ability whatsoever. He worked the comedy circuit for several years, and then in 1992 presented a satirical radio show The Mark Steel Solution on BBC Radio 5, consisting of half-hour monologues which offered solutions to social problems. It ran to four series. It's Not a Runner Bean, a comic autobiography, was published in 1996, and this led to a column in The Guardian.

Steel wrote a column for The Guardian between 1996 and 1999. He was sacked by that newspaper, according to the comedian because The Guardian wanted to "realign towards Tony Blair" - though The Guardian denied this. In 2000 he started writing a weekly column for The Independent, which appears in the Wednesday Opinion Column.

He has written and performed several radio and television series for the BBC, and authored several books, as detailed below.

In 2005 he toured the UK and Ireland, where he discussed the French revolution in a light-hearted style.

Personal life

Steel is a supporter of Crystal Palace F.C. and Kent County Cricket Club and enjoys watching both play on occasion. He was interviewed by Jonathan Agnew on Test Match Special during the South Africa series, giving an interview on his love of cricket.[9]

He has a son (Elliot) and a daughter (Eloise) from a relationship, but he and his partner separated in 2006.[10]

Politics

During the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, when he was in his 20s, Steel's objections to society's injustices were vented by political protests, punk rock and poetry.

Viewing the Soviet Union as "shit", and as a state capitalist system rather than truly socialist, Steel joined the Socialist Workers Party instead of the Communist Party.[7] He supported strikes and demonstrations, and was present in Southall during the riot in which the killing of Blair Peach occurred. In the early '80s he also persuaded his mother to allow striking steelworkers to spend a night in the Steel residence.[7] By the end of the 1980s, he had moved into a squat with his old friend Mick Hannan, before taking up residence in a flat.[7]

In 2000 Steel took part in the London Assembly elections on behalf of the London Socialist Alliance (part of the Socialist Alliance) in the Croydon and Sutton constituency; he received 1,823 votes (1.5 per cent of the vote).

In 2007 he left the SWP and justified his decision in his book What's Going On? In the book he wrote that he left the party because whilst the membership base had become smaller and smaller, the members that remained became increasingly deluded regarding the size and relevance of the organisation. He also condemned the manner in which, at a time when there was broad public support for socialist ideals, increasingly bitter and futile in-fighting on the left made political success impossible.

Alex Callinicos, International Secretary of the SWP, reviewed the book in the Socialist Review, arguing that it "evinces a kind of grandiose ignorance" and that "the only principle one can detect here is that the SWP is always in the wrong".[11] Literary critic Nicholas Lezard praised the book in The Guardian, particularly for its discussion of the break-up of Steel's relationship, which "gives it a poignancy and depth which at its outset one might not have expected".[12]

In February 2013, Steel was among those who gave their support to the People's Assembly in a letter published by The Guardian newspaper.[13] Steel spoke at a press conference to launch the People's Assembly Against Austerity on 26 March 2013[14] and regional public meetings[15] in the lead up to a national meeting at Westminster Central Hall on 22 June 2013. Steel also gave a speech at the People's Assembly Conference in Westminster.

Radio and television

Radio

He has also contributed to or appeared on the following shows:

Television

He also appeared in the following shows:

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mark Steel". IMDB. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  2. ↑ "Question Time". BBC. 29 March 2002. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  3. ↑ "Last week's panel". BBC News. 29 March 2002.
  4. ↑ http://biasedbbc.org/blog/2013/02/05/reds-on-top-of-the-bed/
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wade, Michael (7 November 2011). "The week with George Galloway - Nov 4". Talksport. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
  6. ↑ Reasons To Be Cheerful
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Steel, Mark (2001). Reasons to be Cheerful. Scribner UK. ISBN 0-7432-0804-8.
  8. ↑ "Open2.net: How did you get into comedy?". Open University. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
  9. ↑ Interview on BBC's Test Match Special, 1 August 2008
  10. ↑ "Anatomy of a break-up". The Independent (London). 24 September 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
  11. ↑ Callinicos, Alex (September 2008). "What's Going On?". Socialist Review. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
  12. ↑ Lezard, Nicholas (11 April 2009). "Few things are funnier than ageing and disillusionment". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 16 November 2010.
  13. ↑ People's Assembly opening letter http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/feb/05/people-assembly-against-austerity 5 February 2013, The Guardian Newspaper.
  14. ↑ Mark Steel, Right that's enough now what are we going to do about it?, ‘‘Independent, 18 February 2013
  15. ↑ Marc Rath, “Popular writer joins comedian at anti-cuts rally“ ‘’This is Bristol’’ website, 30 May 2013

External links

Audio files