Look who's coming to dinner

Max Kaye

Obama's selection sounds sanctimonious and pretty awful - it's supposed to be a dinner party, not Yom Kippur. I mean, Ghandi: He's taking the piss...

Mine would include Winston Churchill, Dorothy Parker, Edward Gibbon, Oscar Wilde and Ayn Rand. Other than the Sainted Boris, I cannot think of any living British politician who'd qualify (though quite a few might make good butlers and waiters)

Graeme Archer

Who would be on Coffee Housers’ list?

Certainly not a prig like Barack Obama, with his painfully worthy guest list. I think it says more about his self-esteem than anything else.

Who would you invite to dinner? How about people you're fond of?

Lee Jakeman

I would invite my friends. I wouldn't invite complete strangers like Mohammed, Jesus and the Buddha. Mohammed doesn't eat pork, Jesus would change my water into wine and the Buddha is too fat and needs to go to fewer diner parties.

Tiberius

Mark Steyn, John Howard, Polly Toynbee, George Galloway, an elephant, and a hose pipe.

Norwegian Conservative

Probably Edward Heath, Nicholas Sarkozy, Angela Merckel, Martin Luther and Margaret Thatcher.

Essex Boy

Hitler, Stalin, Mao-tse Tung. To see, on relection, if they would have done things differently.

Perry Neeham

Realistically the guests would have to be alive and probably in the UK. Hmmm, how about Alan Bennett (for laughs); David Attenborough (national treasure); Jeremy Paxman (to keep the talk going); Germaine Greer (pleasantly irritating); Michael Palin (someone has to do the Parrot sketch) and Richard Dawkins (to say grace).

James Strong

Jane Austen,Jonathan Swift,John Kennedy Toole and of course, following guidance I received from a commenter on Stephen Pollard's page, Melissa Theuriau.

CE

Nauseatingly priggish as Obama's choice is, I think we can safely say that Jesus, Gandhi and Lincoln did enough for civil rights in their own way for him not to have to invite a token black guest to his own dinner party.

Kevyn Bodman

Melanie Phillips, the most interesting columnist in Britain.She is often wonderfully right but sometimes gloriously wrong, would be a great guest.Bill Clinton: charm, charisma and brains. Matt Groening (creator of 'The Simpsons' TV's best ever show) and Dame Kelly Holmes, bright, lively and a woman who has served her country and achieved astonishing success in athletics. And I think they could all hold their own around the table.

Verity

Why did I forget to mention Lee Kwan Yew? He would sit to my right. Actually, I might agree with Kevyn Bodman: Bill Clinton. Can we have definite uninvitees we wouldn't be caught dead at the dinner table with? Jimmy Carter? Napoleon? Idi Amin? Nelson Mandela? Gloria Stenheim? Barbra Streisand? STING? Al Gore? Tony and Cherie Blair - each or singly? Gordon Brown? Tessa Jowell? The Olympics Committee? Chavez? Castro? Merkel? Uninvitees every one.

Natalee

You almost have to change this question up a bit to ensure one does not get a packaged answer...I suggest it stipulates that you can only have one of a priest, a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, a politician, a writer, an artist (visual or performing), an entreprenuer/businessman, a first generation professional, a unionist and someone whose family has no fewer than 6 generations of wealth. And then the person would have to say why they invited each person.