The Battle of Ideas 2009 was a two-day festival of high-level, thought-provoking debate organised by the Institute of Ideas and hosted by the Royal College of Art.
Daniel Ben-Ami, finance and economics journalist; author
Ferraris for All: in defence of economic progress and
Cowardly Capitalism
Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at the universities of Oxford and Warwick; chair, Neuroscience Research Partnership, Singapore; chair, general advisory committee on science, Food Standards Agency
John Cooper, leading criminal and human rights barrister; regular columnist,
The Times and
Observer; editor,
Criminal Bar Quarterly
Frank Field, MP, Labour MP for Birkenhead; co-chair, Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration; author,
Neighbours from Hell: The Politics of Behaviour
Claire Fox, director, Institute of Ideas; panellist, BBC Radio 4's
Moral Maze
Frank Furedi, professor of sociology, University of Kent, Canterbury; author,
Wasted, Politics of Fear and
On Tolerance: in defence of moral independence
Leela Gandhi, professor of English, University of Chicago; author
Affective Communities: anticolonial thought, fin-de-siècle radicalism, and the politics of friendship; founding co-editor,
Postcolonial Studies journal.
Mick Hume, editor-at-large,
spiked; writer,
The Times
Susan Jacoby, author,
The Age of American Unreason; programme director, Centre for Inquiry - NYC; fellow, Centre for Scholars and Writers, New York Public Library.
Bronwen Maddox, chief foreign commentator,
The Times; author
In Defence of America
Kenan Malik, writer and broadcaster; author,
From Fatwa to Jihad and
The Quest for the Moral Compass (forthcoming)
Paul Mason, broadcaster; author,
Financial Meltdown and the End of the Age of Greed; technology editor, BBC's
Newsnight
Ashis Nandy, senior honorary fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi; recipient of Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize (2007); author, omnibus edition of writing,
Exiled at Home, Return from Exile, and
A Very Popular Exile.
Brendan O'Neill, editor,
spiked; author,
Can I Recycle My Granny and 39 Other Eco-Dilemmas
Jeffrey Rosen, professor of law, George Washington University; author,
The Supreme Court: the personalities and rivalries that defined America
Lionel Shriver, novelist,
We Need to Talk About Kevin and
The Post-Birthday World; commentator for the
Guardian, the
Telegraph, and the
Sunday Times.
Raymond Tallis, fellow, Academy of Medical Sciences; author,
Aping Mankind: neuromania, Darwinitis and the misrepresentation of humanity
Mark Vernon, journalist; author,
How To Be An Agnostic and
The Meaning of Friendship
Zoe Williams, columnist,
Guardian; author,
Bring it on, Baby
Alison Wolf, Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management, King's College London; director of MSc in Public Services Policy & Management; author,
Review of Vocational Education - The Wolf Report
Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator,
Financial Times; author,
Fixing Global Finance
+ 
