Dinner party

We've been talking a bit recently about food and it made me wonder who I would like to share a table with for dinner. I decided to restrict myself to living people rather than trawl through the annals of time, and I nearly limited myself to British people. This made matters a little difficult. On the whole, I consider politicians to be self-serving egotists (I did say ‘on the whole' as I am sure there are exceptions — well, I certainly hope there are) so most of them are off the list. Most of the others seem pretty boring people. Likewise, I am not the least bit interested in the showbiz ‘M' list celebrities or any other list of celebrities. Again, many of them are likely to be self-serving egotists and I doubt that I would find their conversation very stimulating. And I haven't much idea of the arts, music or literature scenes, so I found it a bit difficult to come up with a guest list. But here goes:

1. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London. Comes across as something of a buffoon and certainly doesn't seem to mind making a fool of himself, but he is a highly intelligent man.
2. Mary Robinson, past President of Ireland and past UN Commissioner for Human Rights.
3. Ian Hislop, editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye who has a dry sense of humour and a quick wit.
4. Ann Widdicombe, Member of Parliament. She has sparked well when on the same television programme as Ian Hislop and it was obvious that not all the wisecracks were scripted.
5. The Duke of Edinburgh. A plain-spoken (some would say outspoken) man with strong views but he seems willing to listen to the other point of view. Known for his verbal gaffes.
6. Stephen Fry, television personality, actor and writer. Another very intelligent man who should be able to add an extra dimension to the conversation.

And for my seventh and last, to make up the table of eight which is just about the perfect number for a dinner table,

7. Barack Obama, President-elect of the USA.

Ah. A problem. I also wanted to have Sir Richard Branson at the table. Now what do I do?