After Dinner Speakers

Sir Ranulph Fiennes was born in 1944 and educated at Eton. He served with the Royal Scots Greys before joining the SAS. He was then the youngest captain in the British Army.

In 1968 he joined the army of the Sultan of Oman and in 1970 was awarded the Sultan’s Bravery Medal.

Since 1969 when he led the British Expedition on the White Nile, Sir Ranulph Fiennes has been at the forefront of many exploratory expeditions.

Described in 1984 as the “World’s Greatest Living Explorer” by the Guinness Book of Records, his expeditions around the world include Transglobe (the world’s first surface journey around the world’s polar axis) 1979-82; North Polar Unsupported Expedition (furthest north unsupported record) 1986; Anglo-Soviet North Pole Expedition 1990/91; co-leader of the Ubar Expedition (which in 1991 discovered Ptolomy’s long-lost Atlantis of the Sands, the frankincense centre of the world); leader of the Pentland South Pole expedition 1992/93 (which achieved the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic Continent and the longest unsupported polar journey in history).

By drawing the analogy between nature’s most dangerous and difficult challenges, and the very real day-to-day business challenges in the 1990s, Sir Ranulph Fiennes involves each individual in the audience on a very personal level.

The elements vital to the success of an expedition include teamwork, determination, patience, discipline, enthusiasm and creative thinking. Building a team with the right character and attitude is of paramount importance. Persistence, tolerance, planning skills, high organisational ability, flexibility to meet and beat unexpected obstacles, goal-setting and performing under extreme pressure are clearly all factors in the success of Sir Ranulph’s remarkable endeavours.

As a motivational speaker popular with both UK and European audiences, Sir Ranulph demonstrates how the qualities of the explorer/adventurer are applicable, crucial even, to success in the business world.

“It is quite remarkable how appropriate the review of your exploits turned out to be. Many comparisons could be drawn between your efforts and those we ask of our own people, such as decisiveness, tenacity, courage and the will and determination to succeed. It is for that reason that your presentation was amongst the most relevant and successful we have yet held for our staff”
Paul A. Verburgt, Executive Vice President, Bank of America

“Congratulations not only on your heroic accomplishments, but also in the manner in which you convey this story to an audience”
E.C. Rogers, Vice President Marketing IBM Corporation

Rt Hon Dr Denis MacShane MP has an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of government, both as a Minister of State for Europe at the Foreign Office and as deputy Foreign Secretary.

Dr MacShane has spoken to diverse audiences from both public and private sector in the UK and abroad. He specialises in penetrating political and economic analysis laced with stories about the many senior politicians with whom he has enjoyed close working relationships.

As the MP who suggested in a changing room of the Commons to David Cameron that Mr Cameron should run for Leadership of the Conservative Party, Dr MacShane has made a small contribution to choosing the new Prime Minister.

He is one of Parliament’s most forceful speakers, known for the sharpness and wit of his interventions. He appears regularly on BBC and Sky TV and on the Today programme. His columns appears in The Times, Daily Telegraph. Observer, Independent and he writes regularly on European political affairs for Newsweek.

As a member of the Privy Council and Foreign Office minister, Dr MacShane had many dealings with the royal family which he builds into his speeches and talks with humorous insights. He specialises in CEO retreats and business conference and dinners where participants want a full and frank insight into how ministers and politicians arrive at their decisions, particularly relating to European affairs.

Dr MacShane speaks French, German and Spanish and writes regularly for European and North American papers. His latest books include a biography of Edward Heath and a study of global anti-semitism. He has four children and won an award as the fastest skier in Parliament. He has been MP for Rotherham since 1994.

Books by Rt Hon Denis MacShane include:

Buy Denis MacShane’s books here

Specific topics:

The global economy – challenges, risks, where the action is

Europe – yesterday’s dream, today’s problem

Lifting the veil on goverment – how it really works

The real controllers of power in britain

Why Labour lost and the Coalition will too

From Downing Street to buckingham place – why monarchs last and prime minister don’t

Ten things you didn’t know (but should) about the world economy

The end of foreign policy

Mark Oaten was Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Winchester for 13 years and at one time considered favourite for party leadership. He is a recognised leading expert on the subject of Coalition governments- his book Coalitions was first published in 2007.

Oaten now lectures and advises a wide range of clients on the practical workings of successful coalitions.

He is currently a member of the Council of Europe representing the UK. He is a Board member of the British Healthcare Trade Association, Alcohol Concern, Mental Health Matters, the prison charity Unlock, the Council for Administration and a Director of the Charity Finance Directors Group.

Mark lectures at Wroxton College in Oxford and provides commentary and reviews for Sky and BBC Television.
During his time in parliament he was Chairman of the Liberal Democrats, Shadow Home Secretary and a member of the Business Select Committee.

Roger is one of the BBC’s most experienced presenters and correspondents. He has covered nine wars and twenty two elections as well as coups, revolutions and other major events across the world for TV and radio. Since 1999 he has been presenting the World Today, Newshour and other BBC World Service programmes, along with the World Tonight on Radio Four, and Talking Point on BBC World TV.

William Crawley is a broadcaster, journalist and writer of Will & Testament, one of the country’s most popular blogs. The diversity of subjects he deals with on television, radio, in print and online inevitably lead others to describe him as “versatile”, though he wonders himself if it isn’t a sign of a short attention span. Or the fact that he’s Irish.

His TV series “Blueprint”, which explored 600 million years of Ireland’s natural history in three hours of television, was described by the BBC in Northern Ireland as the “most ambitious multi-platform broadcasting project” in their history.

In his BBC interview series “William Crawley Meets …”, he travels around the world to talk to some of the controversial thinkers and activists who help shape the modern conversation — from the biologist Richard Dawkins to the philosopher Peter Singer, from the gay bishop Gene Robinson to the architect Richard Rogers.

After hundreds of interviews on radio and television, he realizes that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Which may explain why Ian Paisley first revealed in an interview with William Crawley that he had prayed in private with his former enemy Martin McGuinness; why the Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney first talked about his pot-smoking days in Berkeley, California; and why Richard Dawkins had second thoughts about the use of the word “delusion” in the title of his global bestseller The God Delusion. Alas, it may also explain why the Holywood screen legend Tony Curtis used so many expletives in one live interview during a lunchtime news programme that he made headlines around the world for “turning the BBC airwaves blue” (as the New York Daily News put it).

A former philosophy teacher, with a PhD in the subject, William is an expert on ethics and religion and has made many programmes investigating contemporary moral debates, including “What’s Wrong With …?”, a round-table discussion show, and “Frozen North”, which took him to the Canadian sub-arctic to investigate the impact of climate change.

With a passion for the arts, William presents The Book Programme for BBC Radio Ulster, has hosted the BBC’s TV coverage of the Belfast Festival since 2005, and has presented features on the arts for Radio 3 and Radio Ulster. One of his biggest challenges was a documentary for Radio 4 in which William was tasked with explaining the annual Loyalist bonfires to an English audience without the use of subtitles.

William has also turned the camera on himself in a semi-autobiographical TV series which examined some of the big issues of our modern age, and some of the obsessions of Irish culture: death, booze and religion. In Dying For A Drink, William joined a very short but nevertheless illustrious list of BBC presenters who have become inebriated on screen. That is, inebriated deliberately.

He also regularly presents news and political phone-in shows for the BBC in Northern Ireland, frequently hosts the drive-time news and current affairs programmes for Radio Ulster, gets up early every Sunday morning to present a specialist religion and ethics programme, Sunday Sequence (which was recently named UK Religion Programme of the Year) and can also be heard presenting Radio 4′s Sunday programme from time to time. He presented an edition of Sunday Sequence live from the Ground Zero site shortly after 9/11, and marked the 50th anniversary of South Africa’s Freedom Charter with a programme broadcast from the cell that held Nelson Mandela.

If this looks like a media career, it’s well to remember that it all happened by accident. Ten years ago, William was asked to present a Thought for the Day, which, at less than 3 minutes, is an ideal format for a short attention span. He’s been broadcasting ever since.

After many years in high-level diplomacy Charles Crawford has a unique profile as an imaginative, dynamic and even provocative speaker who has addressed audiences large and small in English, Polish and Serbian

After an Honours degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University he qualified as a Barrister before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

From 1985-87 Charles served as Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe’s official Speechwriter, contributing ideas/language for speeches by the Foreign Secretary (major set-piece speeches, Parliamentary debates and less formal after-dinner remarks)

His first job on joining the FCO in 1979 was to head the Indonesia Section, followed by his first posting, to communist post-Tito Yugoslavia. He returned to London in 1984 and after a year on the Aviation Desk was appointed FCO Speech-writer. He was posted to South Africa in 1987 as part of the Embassy team led by Ambassador Robin Renwick working to end apartheid.

Returning to London in 1991 he worked in the FCO Department dealing with the Soviet Union as communist rule collapsed. He then spent three years in Moscow as Political Counsellor and then served three times as HM Ambassador: in Sarajevo (1996-1998); in Belgrade (2001-2003) and most recently in Poland (2003-2007).

In 1987 he wrote the FCO’s first Guide to Speech-Writing, a dynamic text full of real-life examples on how to write speeches – and how to weed out lugubrious mistakes. Two decades later it remains a core part of the FCO’s speech-drafting training

He subsequently contributed to speeches by members of the Royal Family and successive Prime Ministers, as well as different Ministers and other senior personalities in public and commercial life

He left the FCO at the end of 2007 to start a new career as writer, consultant, mediator and trainer. In 2009 he joined the UK Conservative Party candidates list

In recent months Charles Crawford led training courses for senior EU and other officials and private clients aimed at improving their communication skills. He has written for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Independent, DIPLOMAT and Total Politics.

In 2009 his audiences included the Headmasters Conference and Conservative Friends of Poland, as well as private groups and academic gatherings

In 2010 he and other former British Ambassadors in partnership with ADR Group launched a new senior strategic dispute resolution panel, ADRg Ambassadors

Charles Crawford’s trenchant observations on public policy issues are now available to a growing readership on his blog




Such honesty has no place in modern government…it’s bloody dangerous!
Andrew Dodge (Samizdata)

The most telling critique of this delusional foreign policy comes in regular instalments in the form of a blog by the former British ambassador to Poland, Charles Crawford. It’s called www.charlescrawford.biz, and if you want to know just how much in despair many of our diplomats are, this is the place to look
Dominic Lawson (The Times, 2010)

In 2005 a humorous FCO email he wrote as Ambassador to Warsaw (a satirical speech by Prime Minister Tony Blair damning other countries’ selfishness on EU Budget issues) caused a stir when it was leaked to the Sunday Times

His FCO written work was praised at the highest levels in London, NATO and the EU for its uncompromising dynamic style:

“fabulously readable and interesting analysis, with practical application … just about the best scenesetter [No10 staff] have ever seen”

“acrobatic and eye-catching in his use of language”

As a speaker Charles Crawford draws on dramatic episodes from his diplomatic career to explain wider policy themes, paradoxes and trends. His presentations are interesting and thought-provoking, but above all memorable

He is strong on foreign and public policy issues such as:

o Communism (and Vampires)
o Dealing with extremists and war criminals
o Climate change and PPP (perverse precautionary principles)
o Amazon Space: how the Internet is changing the strategic policy context
o International negotiation (as explained by Shrek, the Joker and Clint Eastwood)
o UK/European Union relations: Too Big (not) to Fail

Professor Roger Steare is a leading practitioner in the development and delivery of Leadership, Culture and Ethics programs globally, for organizations such as BP, Citigroup, HSBC and PwC. He helps people in organizations all over the world develop good thinking and then do the right thing.

Regulators and law enforcement agencies including the FSA, the SFO and the US Department of Justice have endorsed the effectiveness of his highly interactive programs and while his consultancy work has been acclaimed by top executives from firms such as HSBC and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, his book ethicability®: How to decide what’s right and find the courage to do it has been endorsed by President Jimmy Carter and David Cameron MP.

Roger Steare is Professor of Organizational Ethics and Corporate Philosopher in Residence at the Cass Business School in London, where he teaches ethics at undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA levels. He conducts extensive research on human character, judgement and behaviour, and has published research based on over 20,000 “Moral DNA” profiles of people in 162 countries.

He is a Fellow of the influential centre-right policy think tank, Respublica; a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts; and a Fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals.

Roger is a recognized media expert on ethics issues, appearing regularly on BBC Newsnight, the BBC World Service, CNBC Europe and in the FT and The Times. He was a member of the Expert Drafting Committee for Rights and Humanity, invited by the British Government to prepare recommendations for the G20 London Summit in April 2009.

Roger studied the History of Western Philosophy with the late Lord Conrad Russell, son of the great British philosopher Bertrand Russell and draws on a wide range of professional experience as a banker, a social worker, an executive coach and CEO of a UK subsidiary of Adecco, the world’s largest employment agency.

Whether as an enthusiastic, capable conference facilitator, a speaker working interactively among delegates on the floor, or as an advisor and consultant to boards and businesses, Roger’s unique skill set and ability to communicate his advice and views ensure he is constantly in international demand. He unfailingly provokes lively debate and discussion and the fascinating, thought inspiring opinions he holds on ethicability in the world of politics make him an important member of our Election 2010 commentary team.

View the corporate showreel for Prof. Roger Steare, the leading consultant, educator and speaker in the field of ethics.

Julia Hartley-Brewer is Assistant Editor and columnist on The Sunday Express. She is also a well known for her regular appearances on programmes such as Have I Got News For You and Question Time. She once had a regular spot on Sky News as a newspaper reviewer.

Her newspaper career started with a stint on a local east London paper, the East London Advertiser before joining The Evening Standard as a reporter on the Londoner’s Diary and political correspondent. Her interest in political stories lead her to The Guardian and ultimately to The Express.

In 2006, she presented two political documentaries for the BBC; the programme “Every Prime Minister Needs a Willie” studied the history of Deputy Prime Ministers of Britain, whilst “The Worst Job in Politics” looked at the history of the Leaders of the Opposition.

Quentin Letts is The Daily Mail’s star Parliamentary sketch writer and a prolific contributor to the news and magazine press including The Telegraph, New Statesman and formerly, The Times. He regularly appears on television progammes such as This Week, Newsnight, Have I Got News For You and Question Time.

His writing career has included writing and editing newspaper diaries for the likes of the Evening Standard’s ‘Londoner’s Diary’ and heading up the Daily Telegraph’s Peterborough column for four years.

Letts has worked as New York correspondent for both The Telegraph and The Times, returning to the UK to take up sketch-writing for the Daily Telegraph. Letts was lured to the Daily Mail by Editor Paul Dacre to revive parliamentary sketches in the paper.

Quentin Letts is a proudly self confessed middle-class scratcher renown for his mastery of the vituperative arts.

His highly acclaimed yet controversial book 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain reached number 3 on the Independent’s politics & current affairs bestseller list and is a recommended read by Specialist Speakers.

Quentin Letts is a highly recommended after dinner speaker and panellist for political and current affairs focussed debates.

When firebrand restaurateur Keith Floyd was approached by keen young TV producer David Pritchard, few realised they would create foodie history. Filming was an irresistible blend of unpredictable chaos and unforgettable adventure – but the real passion was always the cooking. And when David discovered Rick Stein, he knew another star was ready to hit the screens.

David Pritchard tells his brilliant and hilarious personal memoirs in a live talk using footage, outtakes and littered with personal comments from the famous chefs he has created, Shooting the Cook is a taste of just what it’s like to be on the road and behind the cameras with some of TV’s greatest celebrity chefs.

He started his career in TV as a vault porter at a regional studio and began working his way through the ranks. His easy style and confident creativity have made him the number one name in food and lifestyle television production.

His style combined with effusive warmth are evident in the programmes he makes. The TV series ‘French Odyssey’ with Rick Stein was dreamed up over a well lubricated meal and sketched on a napkin, yet only David’s style and flair could have made the programme the huge success it proved to be.

David is a raconteur and accomplished after dinner speaker. His hilarious tales are drawn from nearly thirty years of living and working with the nation’s favourite foodies and all that that entails. His talks are always entertaining and like his programmes they paint a wonderful picture of places, food, friends and future plans.

To buy David’s book, just click on the book cover – it’s a great read.

‘The drama, the comedy, the farce, the tales behind the
television series which changed the way we view food and
cooking on TV. David Pritchard speaks with the same
brio and sharpness with which he directs’
MATTHEW FORT

Will Self is the author of five novels, four collections of short stories, three novellas and four non-fiction works. He was born in London in 1961 and graduated from Oxford University. He began writing fiction and working as a cartoonist for the New Statesman and City Limits, a London listings magazine. He has a regular column in the Evening Standard and is also a frequent broadcaster on television and radio.

Nominated in 1993 as one of Granta magazine’s 20 ‘Best of Young British Novelists 2′, his fiction includes three short-story collections: The Quantity Theory of Insanity (1991), winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, Grey Area (1994), and Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys (1998). Cock and Bull (1992) consists of two novellas, and he is also the author of four novels: My Idea of Fun (1993), Great Apes (1997), How the Dead Live (2000) and Dorian (2002), a retelling of Oscar Wilde’s classic tale set in late 20th-century Britain.

His non-fiction includes Perfidious Man (2000), described by his publisher as ‘an examination of modern masculinity’ with photographs by David Gamble, and Sore Sites (2000), a collection of writings about architecture. In addition, he has published two collections of journalism, Junk Mail (1995), and Feeding Frenzy (2001), which includes writing from the period 1995-2000. In 2002 he took part in a ‘reality art’ project in a one-bedroom flat on the 20th floor of a tower block in Liverpool, writing a short piece of fiction while being watched by members of the public. His most recent novel is The Butt (2008), winner of the 2008 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.

A regular broadcaster on television and radio and contributor to and numerous newspapers and magazines, Will Self lives in London with his partner and three children. A book of non-fiction, Psychogeography, was published in 2007, and a selected short stories, The Undivided Self, in 2008.

Books by Will:

Cock And Bull
Dorian
Dr Mukti And Other Tales Of Woe
Feeding Frenzy
Great Apes
Grey Area
How The Dead Live
Junk Mail
Liver
My Idea Of Fun
Perfidious Man
Psycho Too
Psychogeography
The Book Of Dave
The Butt
The Quantity Theory Of Insanity
Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys

Journalist and adventurer Donal MacIntyre is Europe’s best known investigative reporter. He has worked for all the UK broadcasters, most famously ITV and the BBC where he has won awards for his outstanding and often dangerous work.

As a finalist of Dancing on Ice he won the nation’s heart and brought his journalism to whole new audience. MacIntyre has worked also in adventure television for Discovery and National Geographic and travelled the world living with far flung tribes and enduring the planets Wild Weather for the BBC.

His work is more diverse than any other broadcaster in the country ranging from undercover to war zone reporting to animal welfare documentaries. From live radio to live television, he has won awards across the world for his unique brand of work. Recently he has worked with the Government on fatherhood and health campaigns and he is currently an Ambassador for Born Free and Mencap.

In addition, he has won major awards as a director across Europe. He is currently broadcasting on BBC Radio Five Live and writing screenplays and novels.

Donal inspires and entertains conference and after dinner audiences with his experiences from war zones to jungles to one of the most surprising and biggest departures yet from his comfort zone – going from rank outsider to finalist on Dancing On Ice.

He talks about overcoming fear stress and anxiety, operating outside of your comfort zone, and managing risk and reward. From welcoming tribes into his home to learning to dance on ice, Donal is not afraid to take a risk and believes that we can achieve anything we want with the right mindset. Donal is inspiring and entertaining and appeals to a wide audience.

Edwina Currie was born in Liverpool and graduated from Oxford and London Universities. She taught economics and economic history and was a tutor for the Open University. Birmingham City Councillor (1975-1986), Chairman of Central Birmingham Health Authority and served as MP for South Derbyshire from1983 – 1997.Edwina is a well known broadcaster and author. She writes regularly for the national press and many magazines related to Women, health and politics.

She has written several books, including “Life Lines” published in 1989, on her time as Health Minister. “What Women Want” on women’s roles and “Three Line Quips” witticisms from the House of Commons.

Her first novel “A Parliamentary Affair” went to Number 1 in the best-seller lists and has sold over 250,000 copies in English and been translated into German, Italian, Polish and Russian. Her second “A Woman’s Place” (1996) and third “She’s Leaving Home” (1997) set in her native Liverpool, were also best-sellers. The fourth novel “The Ambassador” a tongue-in-cheek look at the world in the near future. Her books are borrowed over 100,000 times a year from libraries. Her novel “Chasing Men” appeared in February 2000.

Edwina presents her own programme “Late Night Currie” for BBC Radio Five Live. She is also frequently heard on Radio 4 and Radio 2. On television she has presented “Sunday Supplement” for central TV and “Espresso” for Channel 5, “Menu from Heaven” for ITV in April/May 1998 and her BBC daytime TV series “What Now”.
From 1985-86 Edwina was PPS (aide) to Sir Keith Joseph at the Department of Education and science from 1986-88 she was a government minister at the DHSS (later the Department of Health) under Margaret Thatcher. She resigned after warning about food safety in eggs. John Major invited her to rejoin the government in 1992 but she declined. She lost her seat in the 1997 General Election.

A pro-European, in June 1994 she was a candidate for the European Parliament for Beds and Milton Keynes. The Conservatives won 18 out of 87 seats and she was not returned. 1995 – 1997 Edwina was Chairman of the Conservative Group for Europe and 1995 – 1999 was vice chairman of the all-party European Movement.
She has been the subject of several full-length documentary profiles including “The Other Half” (1984 John Pitman), Channel 4 “Dispatches” (1989 Michael Cockerell), “Vanessa’s Day with…..” (1997 Vanessa Feltz). She frequently appears on other radio and TV stations.

December 1988 Edwina Currie was runner-up to Mrs Thatcher in BBC Radio 4’s “Woman of the Year” poll; the following year she came sixth in the same poll (between Mother Theresa and Raisa Gorbachev). In 1990 Curry was chosen as “Campaigner of the Year” in The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards for her work on homosexual equality.

John Reid was born in Lanarkshire. The son of a postman and a factory worker he attended St. Patrick’s High School in Coatbridge and went on to read History at Stirling University, gaining a PhD.

Dr Reid has served at almost every level of the Labour Party, from branch to constituency. From 1979 to 1983 he was Research Officer for the Labour Party in Scotland subsequently becoming political adviser to the Labour Leader, Neil Kinnock from 1983 to 1985. He went on to become Scottish Organiser of Trade Unionists for Labour from 1986 to 1987. He was tipped for success from his first election to the Commons in 1987 and soon became a defence spokesman, where he spent seven years in opposition before joining the Ministry of Defence when Labour came to power in 1997.

He was largely responsible for the Strategic Defence Review, and was made minister for transport in 1998. He impressed PM Tony Blair with his robust performance and joined the cabinet as Scottish secretary after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. Following Peter Mandelson’s second fall, he became Northern Ireland Secretary.

He moved from the province shortly after being forced to suspend devolution in October 2002. His trouble-shooting skills were turned instead to more purely political questions, as Tony Blair appointed him Labour Party Chairman and Minister without Portfolio.

In March 2003, he was given his fourth different Cabinet role, when he was appointed Leader of the House of Commons following Robin Cook’s resignation.

And less than three months later he became health secretary when Alan Milburn quit the government.
Reid has been a Lanarkshire MP for the past 18 years, representing Motherwell North and Hamilton North and Bellshill. Following the Boundary Commission’s decision to disband his previous seat, he was elected as MP for Airdrie and Shotts at the 2005 general election.

His 10-year ministerial career saw him undertake nine different ministerial jobs, his appointment as health secretary in June 2003 took him into his fourth cabinet job in less than a year.

1989-1990 Opposition Spokesman on Children
1990-199 Opposition Spokesman on Defence
1997-1998 Minister of Defence
1998-1999 Minister for Transport
1999-2001 Secretary of State for Scotland
2001-2002 Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
2002-2003 Party Chair and Minister without Portfolio
2003 Leader of the House of Commons
2003-2005 Secretary of State for Health
2005-2006 Secretary of State for Defence
2006-2007 Secretary of State for The Home Department (Home Secretary)

Brian Taylor is BBC Scotland’s Political Editor. After joining the BBC in 1985, he co-presenting the political programme Left, Right and Centre, until he was appointed Political Correspondent and ultimately, Political Editor.

Brian covers Scottish politics for BBC Scotland and related BBC national programmes including Good Morning Scotland and is a regular contributor to other BBC programmes.

Brian worked in newspapers for eight years including six years as a lobby correspondent at Westminster. He has written two books on Scotland’s new Parliament and co-written eight more.

Among other things, he is the author of The Scottish Parliament: a definitive account of the road to devolution and its consequences. His follow on book, Scotland’s Parliament: Triumph and Disaster, analyses the early years of the new Parliament.

He has lectured on politics and identity in Washington, Stockholm, Madrid, Edinburgh, London and throughout Germany and is a popular and expert speaker on Scottish politics and wider political matters.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC grew up in Glasgow, raised from a working-class background. She has dedicated her professional life to giving a voice to those with the least power by championing civil liberties and promoting human rights.

Elevated to the House of Lords in 1997 – she has argued with passion, wit and humanity for social justice and written and broadcasted on a range of issues, from medical negligence to women and childrens rights.

Beyond the House of Lords, Helena Kennedy is an acclaimed public speaker, regularly requested for lectures and after-dinner speaking.

As a member of the Doughty Street Chambers in London she has been involved in many prominent cases; including the Brighton Bombing, the Michael Bettany espionage trial, the Guildford Four appeal and the bombing of the Israeli embassy. She has acted for many battered women who have killed their husbands.

She was a British member of the International Bar Association Task Force on Terrorism. She currently chairs the inquiry for the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health into infant death, following miscarriages of justice where mothers were wrongly convicted of infanticide.

She is a life peer participating in the House of Lords on issues of human rights, civil liberties, social justice and culture.

From 1992 to 1997, she was chair of the constitutional reform group Charter 88, persuading the Labour government to make devolution and human rights legislation central to thier manifesto. She is also on the board of the Independent newspaper and chair of the Human Genetics Commission, advising government on the ethical, social and legal issues related to genetic science.

An active and prominent promoter of education issues, Kennedy was commissioner on the Hamlyn National Commission on Education from 1991 to 1993. In 1997, her report Learning Works, for the Further Education Funding Council sparked great changes within education policy. Subsequently, The Helena Kennedy Foundation was established to help disadvantaged students into higher education.

In 1993, she became the first chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 1993 to 2001 and is now president of the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University, the National Children’s Bureau and vice president of the Association of Women Barristers and the Haldane Society.

She is chair of The British Council and the Human Genetics Commission. A trustee of the Club of Three: a tri-lateral network of countries comprising UK, France, Germany, and the KPMG Foundation. A member of the Foreign Policy Centre advisory council, the International Centre for Prison Studies, World Bank Institute, the Independent News & Media board and the Académie Universelle des Cultures. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the City and Guilds of London Institute.

As a media personality, she has presented radio and television programmes including Heart of the Matter, Raw Deal and the award-winning Time, Gentlemen, Please for the BBC, and is a frequent guest on both radio and television, including Any Questions, Newsnight, Question Time and The Today Programme.

She made the film Mothers Behind Bars, which radically changed policy within women’s prisons. She created the highly political drama series Blind Justice, which lifted the lid on many of the legal scandals of the era.

Helena Kennedy’s new book Just Law: the changing face of justice and why it matters is now available – click here to review or purchase

Alan Fisher is a Scottish broadcast journalist, currently working as the London correspondent for Al Jazeera International. He was born and raised in Motherwell and studied at journalism at Napier College in Edinburgh. He joined Moray Firth Radio in Inverness and then Northsound Radio in Aberdeen.

He moved to television, initially working at Grampian Television for the regional news programme North Tonight and then, Scottish Television as a reporter on Scotland Today. He joined GMTV as Ireland correspondent setting up their bureau in Belfast.

He was promoted to Chief Correspondent and reported from Bosnia, Rwanda and Iraq during the first Gulf War. He has also appeared in Bad Girls where he played a reporter.

Since his arrival at Al Jazeera, he has reported from across the globe including stints in Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and many countries across Europe. He is also a columnist with the on-line current affairs magazine Scottish Review and a patron of the Young UK Programme.

Michael Portillo was born in North London in 1953. His father, Luis, had come to Britain as a refugee at the end of the Spanish Civil War, and his mother, Cora, was brought up in Fife. She met Luis while she was an undergraduate at Oxford.

Michael attended a grammar school, Harrow County, and went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he gained a first class degree in History. Leaving Cambridge in 1975, he worked for a shipping company for a year before moving to the Conservative Research Department in 1976, staying three years.

At the General Election in 1979 he was responsible for briefing Margaret Thatcher before her press conferences and for the next two years was special adviser to the Secretary of State for Energy.

He worked for Kerr McGee Oil (UK) Ltd from 1981 – 1983. He contested the Birmingham Perry Bar seat at the 1983 Election.

Michael returned to politics as a special adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Nigel Lawson) and in December 1984 won the by-election in Enfield Southgate, caused by the murder of Sir Anthony Berry MP in the Brighton bombing. Michael represented the seat for thirteen years but was defeated in the 1997 Election.

He joined the Government in 1986, and remained a member until 1997. He was a whip, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Social Security, Minister of State for Transport, Minister of State for Local Government and Inner Cities; and as a Cabinet Minister was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Employment, and Secretary of State for Defence. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1992.

After his 1997 electoral defeat, Michael returned to Kerr McGee as an adviser. He also turned to journalism. He wrote about walking as a pilgrim on the Santiago Way, and working as a hospital porter. He had a weekly column in The Scotsman. He had a three part series for Channel 4 about politics Portillo’s Progress, and a programme in BBC2’s Great Railway Journeys series, which was partly a biography of his late father, and radio programmes on Wagner and the Spanish Civil War.

Michael was re-elected to Parliament in a by-election in Kensington and Chelsea in November 1999 and was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer February 2000 – September 2001. Following the Conservatives’ election defeat in 2001, Michael unsuccessfully contested the leadership of the party. In 2005 Michael left the House of Commons.

Michael has made a number of television programmes for BBC2 including Art that shook the world: Richard Wagner’s Ring, Portillo in Euroland, Elizabeth I in the series Great Britons, When Michael Portillo became a single mum, and Portillo Goes Wild in Spain (a natural history programme). For BBC4 he has made several series of Dinner with Portillo, a discussion programme. In 2006 he joined The Moral Maze team on BBC Radio 4. In 2003 he began the weekly political discussion programme This Week on BBC1 with fellow presenters Andrew Neil and Diane Abbott MP. Beginning in 2004 Michael became a weekly columnist on The Sunday Times and was the theatre critic of The New Statesman between 2004 and 2006.

Michael is a member of the International Commission on Missing Persons in the former Yugoslavia (which organises the identification of massacre victims) under the chairmanship of Jim Kimsey, and sits on of the Board of BAE Systems plc.

Sir Steven Redgrave has proved himself to be the greatest Olympian Britain has ever produced. After striking gold in Atlanta – Britain’s solitary victory of the games – he became the only British athlete ever (and one of only five sportsmen worldwide) who has won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic games. Gold in the Coxed fours in Los Angeles in 1984, gold in the Coxless pairs in Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).

In addition to his Olympic successes and following two unbeaten seasons in 1993 and 1994, Steve (and his partner Matthew Pinsent) won his sixth world championship gold in August 1995 in Finland. His previous world championship golds were in 1986, 1987, 1991, 1993 and 1994.

His other interests include golf and winter sports, and he was a member of the British Bobsleigh team.

Together with Matthew Pinsent, Steven Redgrave is the holder of the world record in coxless pairs set in Lucerne in 1994 and the Olympic record set in Barcelona in 1992.

Now established as the most outstanding rower of all time, he has announced that he has decided to carry on competing and to maintain his association with sport at the highest level as a standard bearer for British Olympic aspirants through to the Millennium Games in Sydney.

Steven Redgrave was awarded the MBE in the New Year’s Honours List in 1986, and the CBE in the New Year’s Honours List of 1997. The Queen of England has since knighted him.

Redgrave is Vice President of the British Olympic Association and a member of the board that won the bid for London in 2012. After the public voted him Sports Personality of the Year, he then topped an all time poll of winners – beating David Beckham and Ian Botham.

Allison Pearson is a regular columnist for the Daily Mail. Prior to joining the Mail she was a columnist with London’s Evening Standard and The Daily Telegraph. She began her career with The Independent on Sunday, where she was a TV critic, winning Critic of the Year at the British Press Awards in 1993. Pearson has presented Channel 4′s J’Accuse; BBC Radio 4′s The Copysnatchers and appeared as a regular panellist on The Late Review (Newsnight Review’s predecessor).

She has written one novel, I Don’t Know How She Does It (2002), a lightweight ‘chick-lit’ take on the pressures of modern motherhood.

In I Don’t Know How She Does It, Pearson’s heroine is Kate Reddy, hedge fund manager and mother of two. She can juggle nine different currencies in five different time zones and get herself and two children washed and dressed and out of the house in half an hour. In Kate’s life, Everything Goes Perfectly as long as Everything Goes Perfectly.