Saba Poursaeedi

Hertfordshire Organiser Reform UK, prospective parliamentary candidate for Harpenden and Berkhamsted

Saba is the Hertfordshire Coordinator for the Reform Party, and Prospective Party Candidate for ReformUK in Harpenden & Berkhamsted. He works full time in the social housing sector, and, as a passionate believer in free speech and open debate, he also volunteers when he can with the Free Speech Union, Debating Matters and the Battle of Ideas Festival. 

Lord Trevethin and Oaksey KC

barrister, hereditary peer and crossbench member of the House of Lords

Lord Oaksey practises at the Bar as Patrick Lawrence KC, specialising in commercial law, professional misconduct and negligence, and public law. He has been a crossbench peer in the House of Lords since 2017.

Lord Ranger of Northwood

international speaker and broadcaster. Member of the House of Lords

Lord Ranger of Northwood is a member of the House of Lords. He has been a leading figure in the development and communication of innovate, technology led services and has a unique record of working in politics, the public and private sectors over the last twenty-five years. He has been a trusted adviser to senior politicians, chief executives and boards and has led teams through major project delivery, large scale transformational programmes, reputation and communications crises, as well as driving corporate and public affairs campaigns.

Kulveer was part of the team that delivered the London Oystercard and spent four years working for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, leading the transport and environment briefs and establishing the Digital London Office. His time at City Hall included preparing for the 2012 Olympics, making the case for Crossrail, leading on ground-breaking initiatives such as the cycle hire scheme and Tech City.

Most recently he was a senior executive at Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, and established and led the strategic corporate communications function across Northern Europe, APAC and India.

Kulveer has sat on various boards including Transport for London and Bristol 2015 European Green Capital City and is currently a member of the West Midlands Digital Advisory Board and the board of techUK. He is an international public speaker, a regular broadcaster for TV and radio and a passionate Tottenham Hotspur FC fan.

Stanislaus Huepfl

undergraduate, reading Politics and International Relations at LSE

Stanislaus Huepfl is a final-year student at the LSE reading Politics and International Relations.

He is an alumnus of Living Freedom, and believes strongly in the importance of political participation and debate among young people. He is particularly interested in political theory, and plans to pursue an MPhil at the University of Oxford next year.

Beyond studying, he enjoys classical music, running, and spending time with family.

Eleanor Kavanagh-Brown

user-centred designer; project assistant, Academy of Ideas

Eleanor Kavanagh-Brown is a freelance user-centred designer, and is also a project assistant at the Academy of Ideas. She was previously a software engineer, working in the fields of data science and cybersecurity. She has witnessed up close the rapid development of AI, alongside huge growth in power among the largest technology companies. She has become increasingly engaged by the questions that these developments raise concerning the roles of technology, big business and government.

Lord Triesman, David Triesman

Labour principal spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, House of Lords

David Triesman is Labour’s principal spokesperson on Foreign Affairs in the House of Lords. David entered the Lords as a life peer in 2004.

David is an experienced member of parliament and held several ministerial positions in the previous Labour government. He was a government whip (2004-2005) and spoke from the government frontbench on a wide range of subjects including Transport (2004), Education and Skills (2004-2005), Trade and Industry (2004-2005), International Development (2004-2005), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2004-2007) being promoted to parliamentary under-secretary of state for FCO (2005-2007) and Intellectual Property and Quality (2007-2008).

In 2008, David left government to take up the position of national chair of the Football Association, a post he held until 2010. Before coming to the Lords, David was general secretary of the Labour Party (2001-2003) and also served as general secretary of the Association of University Teachers (1993-2001). David has been the chairman and a director in a number of large companies since the mid-1980s and is currently the chairman of the board of advisers of the merchant bank, Templewood, and a member of the board of property developer Augur Buchler.

Outside the House of Lords, he divides his time between his wife and young daughter, and his passion for Tottenham Hotspur.

Kim Samuel

founder of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness (SCSC); author, On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation

Kim Samuel is a leading voice in the global movement for belonging. She is the author of On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation, an exploration of the crisis of social isolation and humanity’s right to belong. She is also the founder of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness (SCSC), a ‘think-and-do tank’ that partners with leading advocacy groups and research organizations to combat social isolation and build belonging around the world. 

In addition, Kim is a research fellow at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford, and an associate fellow at Green Templeton College, also at the University of Oxford.  

Dr Jan Macvarish

education and events director, the Free Speech Union; author, Neuroparenting: the expert invasion of family life

Jan is the education and events director of the Free Speech Union.

Before joining the staff of the Free Speech Union, she worked as an academic sociologist, studying parenting, family life, intimacy and reproductive health. She is the author of Neuroparenting: the expert invasion of family life and co-author of Parenting Culture Studies with colleagues at the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies at the University of Kent, where she is a visiting research fellow.

Follow Jan on X/Twitter: @janmacvarish

Baroness Smith of Newnham, Julie Smith

professor of European Politics, Cambridge University

Julie Smith is Professor of European Politics at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Robinson College. As Baroness Smith of Newnham, she sits in the House of Lords, where she is the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman. She was previously head of the European Programme at Chatham House.  

Julie’s research interests centre on the history and politics of the European Union, democracy in Europe and the UK’s relations with the EU. Her publications include The UK’s Journeys into and out of the EU – Destinations Unknown (Routledge, 2017) and The Palgrave Handbook of European Referendums (editor and contributor Palgrave, 2021)

Barb Jungr

musician, performer, writer and lyricist

An award-winning international performer, recording artist and writer, Barb Jungr is best known for her interpretations and recordings of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Jacques Brel. With performances across four continents and 15 solo album recordings, she appeared on Talking Bob Dylan Blues: A Tribute to Bob Dylan for BBC TV and has appeared on programmes about Dylan’s work and on singing Dylan and Cohen.

Will Friedwald’s The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums ((2017) has a chapter devoted to her 2002 CD, Every Grain Of Sand (Linn Records).

Alongside her performance work she writes music, songs and adapts for children’s and musical theatre: We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, The Fabulous Flutterbys, The Singing Mermaid, The Pixie and The Pudding, How To Hide A Lion, Chocolate Cake, There May Be A Castle, Liver Birds Flying Home. She has contributed to The Cambridge Companion to Blues and Gospel, Dylan at 80: It used to go like that, and now it goes like this, Woman: The Incredible Life of Yoko Ono and John Lydon: Stories of Johnny, and has appeared as a commentator on culture and the voice on radio and television.

After spending many years in Pimlico, she now lives in West Sussex. Visit her website here: www.barbjungr.co.uk.