This week Andrew Marr is joined by Philippe Sands, Janet Dine, John Lloyd and Piers Bizony.
When pictures of abusive treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib were published in 2004, the Bush administration was quick to point the finger at a few military commanders and interrogators on the ground. However, practising barrister and writer PHILIPPE SANDS argues that he has uncovered new evidence to suggest that these abuses link to interrogation techniques introduced at Guantánamo Bay in 2002, and that approval of these techniques came right from the top of the Bush administration. Torture Team: Deception, Cruelty and the Compromise of Law is published by Allen Lane.
Aid, debt or trade - which is the most influential force in the world economy? JANET DINE argues that it’s undoubtedly trade because commercial law, she says, is rigged to minimise risks to the powerful and therefore has potentially lethal effects on the poor. Janet Dine will be delivering her inaugural lecture, ‘Rigging the Risks: How Commercial Law Kills’, at Queen Mary, University of London on Wednesday 7 May.
The former editor of New Statesman and current Director of Journalism at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, JOHN LLOYD is well placed to comment on the influence of the ‘commentariat’, the columnists and leader writers of the press. His new report explores how much the nation’s most outspoken writers can sway political and business minds and affect public opinion. John Lloyd will be speaking on ‘The Power of the Commentariat: How much do commentators influence politics and public opinion?’ at the RSA on Wednesday 7 May, marking the publication of a report of the same name, written by John Lloyd and Julia Hobsbawm.
Imagine booking your ticket on a commercial passenger flight, not to the other side of the planet but out of the Earth’s orbit altogether. PIERS BIZONY argues that far from being science fiction, space tourism is fast becoming a real-life possibility as companies like Virgin and Amazon compete with private entrepreneurs in the new space race. How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel is published by Portobello Books.
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