Gavin Esler (born 27 February 1953) is a Scottish author and BBC television presenter, currently one of the four main presenters on BBC Two's flagship political analysis programme, Newsnight.

Born in Glasgow, Esler was educated at the independent George Heriot's School, Edinburgh. He gained a BA in English and American literature from the University of Kent and a MA in Anglo-Irish literature with distinction from the University of Leeds. He entered journalism via the Belfast Telegraph and has two honorary degrees, including a Doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Esler joined the BBC in 1977 as a Northern Ireland reporter, and extended his role after joining Newsnight in 1982. Esler was then appointed Washington correspondent and later chief North America correspondent for the BBC, in charge of shaping coverage across the whole continent for the corporation, and covering both the earlier George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations. His report on the military build up in the Aleutian islands as part of the Reagan administration's New Maritime Strategy earned him a Royal Television Society award.

Benjamin R. Barber (born August 2, 1939) is an American political theorist and author perhaps best known for his 1996 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld.

Barber held the positions of Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Policy, and he is Walt Whitman Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University; he is currently president and director of the Interdependence Movement and the NGO "CivWorld" at Demos, and its annual Interdependence Day event on September 12. He is a distinguished senior fellow at Demos. As a political theorist, Barber argues for a renewed focus on civil society and engaged citizenship as tools for building effective democracy, particularly in the post-Cold War world. His current work focuses on global democratic governance and the relationship between the arts and democracy. Benjamin Barber has been a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy since 2005. He was an outside adviser to President Bill Clinton, a foreign policy adviser to Howard Dean's 2004 Presidential campaign and continues to counsel political leaders in America and abroad.

The Programme is an instrumental band based in Skiatook, Oklahoma. They were initially active the time period of 2004-2005. They are composed of Max Porter (guitar, xylophone, keyboards), Mark Chronister (guitar, keyboards), Travis Loafman (bass), and Jed Skalnik (drums). They have released one album, Theseus And The Time Machine, and created a massive cult following, stealing nearly every show they perform at.

Their first album is a narrative album, telling the story of a man named Theseus, who creates a time machine and travels through time, to find a lover named Pianissimo. Upon discovery that she is married to a man named Xanthus, Theseus travels back in time to prevent them from ever meeting by killing him. This results in a dramatic change of the future, and Theseus resigns to leave this time behind, and instead wander alone through the ages.

At shows, one of their most famous songs was "They Make Love." The extremely catchy song was always very well received by an enthusiastic crowd. During one show, guitarist Max Porter got so fired up during this song that he accidentally kicked the glockenspiel used in "Return to the Future to Discover Everything Has Changed" off the stage and into an unsuspecting female fan. No one was injured, but it serves as a testament to the Programme's passion in performing their instrumental works.

Nicholas John "Nick" Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British politician, chairman of the British National Party (BNP) and Member of the European Parliament for North West England.

Born in Barnet, Griffin was educated at Woodbridge School in Suffolk. He joined the National Front at the age of fourteen and became a political worker for the party following his graduation from Cambridge University. In 1980 he became a member of its governing body, and later wrote articles for several right-wing magazines. He was the National Front's candidate for the seat of Croydon North West in 1981 and 1983, but left the party in 1989. In 1995 he joined the BNP, and, in 1999, became its leader. He stood as the party's candidate in several elections and was elected as a member of the European Parliament for North West England in the 2009 European Elections.

In 1998, Griffin was convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred, for which he received a suspended prison sentence. In 2005, he was acquitted of separate charges of inciting racial hatred. He has been criticised for many of his comments on political, social, ethical and religious matters, though since becoming leader of the BNP he has sought to distance himself from some of his previously-held positions, which include Holocaust denial. In recent years, where Griffin has been invited to participate in public debates or political discussions, the events have proven controversial, and have often resulted in protests and cancellations.

Craig John Murray (born 17 October 1958) is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and former Rector of the University of Dundee.

While at the embassy in Tashkent, he accused the Karimov administration of human rights abuses, a step which, he argued, was against the wishes of the British government and the reason for his removal. Murray complained to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in November 2002, January or early February 2003, and in June 2004 that intelligence linking the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to al-Qaeda, suspected of being gained through torture, was unreliable, immoral, and illegal. He described this as "selling our souls for dross".

Murray was subsequently removed from his ambassadorial post on 14 October 2004.

Murray was born in West Runton, Norfolk and grew up in neighbouring Sheringham. He was educated at Sheringham Primary and then at the Paston School in North Walsham, Norfolk, an all-boys grammar school where he had an undistinguished record and by his own account he barely gained admission to study Modern History at the University of Dundee. Whilst at university he attended few lectures, instead reading voraciously to teach himself and graduated in 1982 with an MA (Hons) 1st Class. During this period, he was a member of the Liberal Party.