Chocolate Hobnobs with Lennon and Obama

Who would you invite to your dream tea party? That’s the question we’re asking the nation today.

Why on earth do you care? I hear you cry. Well, we’re getting ready for the start of AMNESTEA (get it?) a new fundraising campaign where we ask people to hold tea parties to raise money for Amnesty. Up and down the country around the 10th of December people’s front rooms, offices, village halls and local tea shops will be taken over and they'll be tucking into Earl Grey and fruit cake to help our human rights work.

We’re polling the nation – or at least our followers on blogs, Twitter and Facebook – to find out which historical figure they’d most want at their tea party and which living person they’d invite along too. And importantly, what biscuits would you give them?

The Amnesty press office’s fantasy tea parties threw up some interesting combinations. Mike wanted to share chocolate Hobnobs with John Lennon and Barack Obama; Sarah wants to chat socialism, suffrage and cycling with Sylvia Pankhurst and Lance Armstrong over a few Bourbons. Niall could probably gatecrash Sarah’s doo, as he’s invited Aneurin Bevan and Nelson Mandela to his party – he’ll be bringing along some Jammie Dodgers. And Becky would pair up Oscar Wilde and David Attenborough over some Viennese Whirls (which Sarah hates – biscuits are quite a divisive issue, it seems).

Personally I think my tea party would offer the best chat, as I’ve got William Shakespeare and Woody Allen coming over for a cuppa. I’ve seen all of Woody’s films so we should have plenty to chat about (why was Match Point so bad, for example?) and while I’m not sure I can quite say the same for all of William’s work, we’re Warwickshire neighbours so we can always talk about Stratford. I’m pushing the boat out in such esteemed company and buying some M&S Chocolate Gingers.

So please, add your tea party nominations below – historical figure, living person and choice of biscuit. Or you can tweet it to @Newsfromamnesty. It doesn’t even have to be someone you like: you might want to have a tough talk with Joseph Stalin and George Bush over some Garibaldis. We’ll reveal the all-time Dream Tea Party line-up next week.

And if this has got you in the teaparty mood, go to www.amnesty.org.uk/tea, order your AMNESTEA pack and start planning your ‘real world’ version, ready for Human Rights Day on the 10 December – or come to our party here at the Amnesty HQ!