This week's panel

Question Time, the BBC's premier political programme chaired by David Dimbleby, was broadcast from Perth on 29 June.

He was joined by Solicitor General Mike O'Brien MP, Conservative Julie Kirkbride MP, Deputy First Minister of Scotland Nicol Stephen MSP, Leader of the Scottish National Party Alex Salmond MP and journalist Melanie Phillips.

MIKE O'BRIEN MP

Title: Solicitor General

Mike O'Brien was moved to the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's office at the last May reshuffle.

He was previously a Foreign Office minister and a Home Office minister.

His boss, Lord Goldsmith, has said that David Cameron's recent proposals for abolishing the Human Rights Act and replacing it with a Bill of Rights are "muddled, misconceived and dangerous".

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JULIE KIRKBRIDE MP

Title: Conservative

Julie Kirkbride was elected in 1997.

She backed David Davis in the recent Conservative leadership contest and is well known for asking the Prime Minister if his son Leo had been given the MMR vaccine.

Julie is married to the Conservative MP Andrew Mackay, David Cameron's senior parliamentary and political adviser.

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NICOL STEPHEN MSP

Title: Deputy First Minister of Scotland

Nicol Stephen is the deputy first minister of Scotland and the enterprise and lifelong learning minister.

He is also the party leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell, recently backed a review of the Barnett formula which calculates the level of funding for Scotland.

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ALEX SALMOND MP

Title: Leader, Scottish National Party

Alex Salmond was elected to Parliament in 1987.

He was leader of the SNP in 1990, and stood down after a 10 year period. He later returned as leader in 2004 winning 75% of the vote.

He recently said, alluding to the idea that Gordon Brown is "too Scottish," that "the Chancellor may have been born Scottish but he is desperate to become an Englishman".

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MELANIE PHILIPS

Title: Journalist

Melanie Philips has a regular column for the Daily Mail.

This week she said that David Cameron's proposals for altering human rights law "seem to owe more to the impulse to strike a political pose than produce a workable policy".

Melanie is a regular guest on BBC Radio 4's "Moral Maze" and has just completed her new book "Londonistan".