SINGER Katie Melua, racing driver David Coulthard and chef Rick Stein are among the celebrities lined up to appear at the Oxford Union this term.

The prestigious debating society, in Frewin Court, Oxford, started its Hilary term programme of events this week, with Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter on Monday, to be followed by cricketer Imran Khan later today.

But the term is due to being in earnest tomorrow, with a debate on Afghanistan featuring speakers Lindsey German, from the Stop the War Coalition, and General Sir Richard Dannatt, former Chief of the General Staff of the British Army.

Also lined up to speak are author Louis de Bernieres, due to speak on Tuesday, and singer Duffy, and John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, and experts in various fields, such as geneticist and human evolution specialist Prof Steve Jones.

Union president Stuart Cullen said: “What other student society hosts the Pakistani and Indian High Commissioners, the Chief Rabbi and the head of the Muslim Council of Britain, the president of Georgia and former Irish Taoiseach – and Katie Melua – all in the same eight weeks? Term in, term out, we have speakers that other societies in Oxford, in Britain and across the world would die for.”