Seumas Milne
Seumas Milne is a Guardian columnist and associate editor. He was the Guardian's comment editor from 2001-7 after working for the paper as a general reporter and labour editor. He has reported for the Guardian from the Middle East, eastern Europe, Russia, south Asia and Latin America.
Updated: 6 November 2009
The Prism scandal has revealed that the NSA acting in complicity with private corporations has been given free reign to trample people’s right to privacy, even in Europe. With democratic institutions failing to protect us, only whistleblowers are left to hold the spies to account. 
Following a 15-year peace process, the thought of a united Ireland no longer seems as unrealistic as it once did. And even unionists should come around to the idea, says Guardian columnist Seumas Milne. 
Opponents of Lisbon have long claimed that the treaty sounds the death knell of national government. But when it comes to issues like finance, banking and public services, sovereignty doesn’t get much of a look-in from the apparently euroreluctant Tories, argues Seumas Milne in the Guardian.