A BRAND new student society in York is bringing former British Guantánamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg to speak in the city.

Begg will be at a "talkshow" event at the University of York later this month, in one of the first talks staged by a new group founded by two of the University's young politics students.

The group - YorkX - has been started to bring some of the biggest names and most prominent speakers to York, in the hope of creating a programme of events in the north of England to rival those staged by Oxford and Cambridge, and the London universities.

The interview with Begg, who was held by the US in the detention camp in Cuba for nearly three years, is only the second event the new society will host after Green party leader Natalie Bennett speaks at another event the week before.

YorkX has been founded by Ilyas Ibrahim and Akul Pankhania, both first year politics, philosophy and economics students originally from Bolton.

The pair had been friends for years before coming to university in York together, and found that no student societies in York were hosting the kind of prominent speakers they wanted to hear from.

They decided to set up their own society to fill that gap, and approached both Natalie Bennett and Moazzam Begg about their plans.

Both speakers agreed to come to York to start the new programme. Natalie Bennett will be speaking on Friday, April 22 from 6.30pm in Alcuin College, while the Moazzam Begg event follows on Wednesday, April 27 from 7pm.

Akul said: "Our aim is to put on the best events and invite the biggest names we can to York.

"We want to unite students and members of the public across the north of England. We don't want to be in competition with other student societies, we just want to put good events on."

Information about upcoming events is online at www.yorkx.co.uk. Admittance is free but ticketed.