The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet conservative-leaning newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855 as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, and since 2004 is owned by David and Frederick Barclay.

According to a MORI survey conducted in 2005, 64% of Telegraph readers intended to support the Conservative Party in the coming elections. It had an average daily circulation of 634,113 in July 2011 (compared to 441,205 for The Times).

It is the sister paper of The Sunday Telegraph. It is run separately with a different editorial staff, but there is some cross-usage of stories.

The Daily Telegraph and Courier was founded by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855 to air a personal grievance against the future Commander-in-chief of the British Army, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge.Joseph Moses Levy, the owner of The Sunday Times, agreed to print the newspaper, and the first edition was published on 29 June 1855. The paper cost 2d and was four pages long. It was not a success, however, and Sleigh was unable to pay Levy the printing bill. Levy took over the newspaper, his aim being to produce a cheaper newspaper than his main competitors in London, the Daily News and The Morning Post, to expand the size of the overall market.^{[citation needed]}

George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, author, journalist, and broadcaster, and the Respect Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West. He was previously an MP for the Labour Party, for Glasgow Hillhead and then its successor constituency Glasgow Kelvin from 1987 until 2005. He was expelled from the Labour Party in October 2003 because of his strident public opposition to the Iraq War. He subsequently became a founding member of the left-wing Respect Party, and was elected as the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in 2005. In 2010, Galloway unsuccessfully contested the seat of Poplar and Limehouse, and in 2011 he unsuccessfully contested the Glasgow list for the Scottish Parliament, before being elected as an MP in the Bradford West by-election, 2012.

Galloway is well known for his campaigns in support of the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In the late-1980s Hansard records him delivering a ferocious assault on the Ba'ath regime, and Galloway opposed Saddam's regime until the United States-led Gulf War in 1991. Galloway is known for a visit to Iraq where he met Saddam Hussein, and delivered a speech, which ended in English with the statement "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability." He has always stated that he was addressing the Iraqi people in the speech. Galloway testified to the United States Senate in 2005 over alleged illicit payments from the United Nations' Oil for Food Programme.

Thomas William "Tom" Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English film, television, radio, and stage actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and he rose to prominence through a number of TV roles and more recently major film roles. He played Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor, Captain Nicholls in Steven Spielberg's World War I film War Horse (2011), and also Freddie Page in the British drama The Deep Blue Sea, alongside Rachel Weisz. He played author F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris (2011). He returned to his role as Loki in The Avengers (2012) and is set to reprise the character again for Thor 2 (2013).

Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London, to parents Diana Patricia (née Servaes), a former stage manager and arts administrator, and James Norman Hiddleston, a scientist in physical chemistry who was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company. His father is from Greenock, Scotland and his mother from Suffolk, England. He is the middle child with two sisters, Sarah (oldest), a journalist in India, and Emma (youngest), is also an actor. He was raised in Wimbledon, in his early years, and later in Oxford. When Hiddleston was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. "I think I started acting because I found being away at school while my parents were divorcing really distressing." He went on to act at The Dragon School in Oxford, then continued on to the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2005.

Rhodri "Rhod" Gilbert, (born 18 October 1968) is a Welsh comedian who was nominated in 2005 for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award. In 2008, he was nominated for the main if.comedy (as the Edinburgh Comedy Awards were then branded).

He appears on television and radio panel shows, has performed stand-up on the Royal Variety Performance, and hosts a weekly show on BBC Radio Wales.

Gilbert was born in Carmarthen, Wales, one of three siblings to two teacher parents and studied languages at Exeter University. For the first three weeks, such was his painful shyness that Gilbert was unable to eat with other students in the canteen or even make friends with the student in the next room.

After graduating, Gilbert travelled for a year and a half around Australia and Asia before returning to Carmarthen and working as an admin assistant for the Welsh Office. After this he worked as a qualitative researcher for a number of different market research agencies in London.

Gilbert got into professional comedy in 2002, after taking a comedy workshop course, but only "thanks to a girlfriend’s constant nagging". Within 18 months, Gilbert had already won several different talent competitions and was nominated for the Perrier Newcomer award for his first solo show in 2005 at Edinburgh Fringe entitled 1984. He has since performed worldwide.

Sarah Price (born 19 April 1979 in North London) is a former backstroke swimmer from the United Kingdom. She began her swimming career at the Potters Bar club, and turned professional aged fifteen. She set her first British record in 1997 in the 50 m backstroke. She also swam for Barnet Copthall Swimming Club, before ending her career at Loughborough University.

In 2001, at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Riesa, Germany, Price set a world record in the 200 m backstroke winning gold. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, she won gold medals in the 100 m and 200 m backstroke races, as well as picking up bronze in the 50 m race and the medley relay. Her chances of success at the 2004 Summer Olympics ended when she suffered a freak warm-up injury, cutting her leg on an underwater camera. Price retired in March 2005, and now runs her own swimming clinics.