Liam Dominic Byrne (born 2 October 1970) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Hodge Hill since 2004, and was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2009 to 2010 before being appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 January 2011. On 29 March 2012, several news outlets reported Byrne will announce that if Birmingham approves a 3 May referendum to create the post of Mayor of Birmingham, he will resign to seek the post.

Born in Warrington, Byrne was educated at Burnt Mill School in Harlow and completed his A levels at The Hertfordshire and Essex High School in Bishop's Stortford. He went on to study at the University of Manchester, where he obtained a First class honours in Politics and Modern History and was elected the Communications Officer of the University of Manchester Students' Union. He also holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

Before working in Parliament, he worked for the multi-national consulting firm, Accenture and merchant bankers, N M Rothschild & Sons, before co-founding a venture backed technology company, e-Government Solutions Group, in 2000. Between 1996 and 1997 he advised the Labour Party on the re-organisation of its Millbank headquarters, and helped lead Labour's business campaign under the 'New Labour' scheme.

Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts. His first album, Paddy on the Road (a minor release of 500, although made available again on CD through his website and at gigs in 2010) was recorded with Dominic Behan (brother of Brendan) in 1969. In 2007, he was named as Ireland's greatest living musician in RTÉ's People of the Year Awards.

Moore was born in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. He was originally a bank employee who wanted to express himself using traditional music. A bank strike in 1966, which lasted six months (and effectively paralysed Irish commercial life for the duration), resulted in Moore spending considerable time practising music. When the strike ended, Moore had already decided where his passion in life arose, and left the bank for good.

1972 brought his first major release, Prosperous (named after the village of Prosperous, County Kildare, where the album was recorded), which brought together the four musicians who shortly thereafter formed Planxty: Liam O'Flynn, Andy Irvine, and Dónal Lunny. For a time they called themselves "CLAD", an acronym of their names, but soon decided on Planxty.

Edward Michael Balls, (born 25 February 1967) is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Morley and Outwood since 2010, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. From 2005 to 2010, he was the MP for Normanton and he served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010.

Balls is married to current Shadow Home Secretary and fellow Labour MP Yvette Cooper. In 2008 they were the first married couple to serve together in a British Cabinet.

Balls' father is the zoologist Michael Balls, criticised for campaigning against the grammar school system in Norfolk, then sending his son to fee-paying schools. Balls was born in Norwich and educated at Bawburgh Primary School in Norwich, Crossdale Drive Primary School in Nottinghamshire, and then the private all-boys Nottingham High School, where he played the violin. He went on to attend Keble College, Oxford, where he gained a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (graduating ahead of David Cameron), and later Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar specialising in Economics.

Andrew Ferguson Neil (born 21 May 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster.

He currently works for the BBC, presenting the live political programmes The Daily Politics on BBC Two, The Sunday Politics on BBC One and This Week on BBC One. For the BBC he also anchors Straight Talk with Andrew Neil and makes documentaries.

He is also Chairman of Spectator Magazines; Chairman of ITP Magazines (Dubai); and Chairman of World Media Rights (London).

Neil made his name at The Sunday Times where he was editor for 11 years. In 1995 he was made editor-in-chief of the Press Holdings group of newspapers, owner of The Business and (from 2005) The Spectator, moving up to become chairman in July 2008.

Neil was born in Paisley, Renfrewshire. He grew up in the Glenburn area, and attended the local Lancraigs Primary School. Aged 11, Neil passed his 11-plus examinations and sent to the then academically selective Paisley Grammar School. His father was a professional soldier who had worked his way up through the ranks; his mother worked in the local cotton mills.^{[citation needed]}

Valgeir Sigurðsson (born 1971) is an Icelandic record producer, mixer, composer, engineer and musician.

Coming from a musical background Valgeir's fascination with recording technology lead to a job in a small recording studio at the age of 16. He studied classical guitar and graduated with a Tonmeister degree from London's SAE Institute. In 1998 Valgeir was hired by fellow countrywoman Björk as engineer and programmer on the soundtrack for Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark. A song from the film, I've Seen It All (a duet with Radiohead's Thom Yorke) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to Bob Dylan's Things Have Changed. Valgeir created the distinctive train-rhythm that runs through the song. His working relationship with Björk continued beyond the film project and was consistent from early 1998 until 2006, during which time Valgeir was one of her main studio collaborators.

Valgeir is the founder of Greenhouse Studios, Iceland’s top recording facility established in 1997. In 2005 he founded the Bedroom Community record label launching the recording career of Nico Muhly and producing and releasing albums by Ben Frost and Sam Amidon. He has composed music for TV, film and theater and his debut solo album Ekvílibríum was released by Bedroom Community in 2007, followed by a release of his soundtrack for Dreamland (Draumalandið) in 2010.