Battle of Ideas 2010 30 & 31 October, London

The Battle of Ideas 2010 will be a two-day festival of high-level, thought-provoking debate organised by the Institute of Ideas and hosted by the Royal College of Art.

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Battle of Ideas 2009 Keynote Videos

Institute of Ideas Christmas Lecture 2009

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The Battle for Politics

Pre-Election Public Summit

Gatecrashing the political party -
Create a new agenda: 20 March 2010

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Festival Brochure

Read the Battle of Ideas 2009 Festival brochure PDF [913 KB]

Reading for Battle

Society is collapsing because you are greedy, Brendan O'Neill

Q&A with John Cooper, Luke Gittos & John Cooper

It was disappointing to see how quickly we adopted the tawdry norms of African and global politics, Sharmini Brookes & Andrew Feinstein

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Battles in Print

Questioning the carnivalesque , Ashley Frawley

Refocusing remembrance , Ted Harrison

Some myths of the ‘Work-Life Balance’ discussion , Para Mullan

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Speakers include
David Aaronovitch, columnist, The Times; author, Voodoo Histories

Peter Barron, director of communications and public affairs, North and Central Europe, Google; former editor, Newsnight

Martin Bell, former independent MP for Tatton; author, A Very British Revolution: the expenses scandal and how to save our democracy

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

Vince Cable, deputy leader and shadow chancellor, Liberal Democrats; author, The Storm: the world economic crisis and what it means

Jenny Diski, novelist, Apology for the Woman Writing; essayist; memoirist; author, The Sixties

Cory Doctorow, novelist; co-editor, BoingBoing.net; author, Content: selected essays on technology, creativity, copyright and the future of the future

Peter Donnelly, director, Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics; professor, statistical science, University of Oxford

Frank Furedi, professor of sociology, University of Kent, Canterbury; author, Wasted, Politics of Fear, Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?

David Harsent, poet; Forward Prize winner 2005, Legion; visiting professor, Sheffield Hallam University

Anthony Horowitz, author and creator, Alex Rider and Power of Five novels; creator and screenwriter, Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War and Collision; journalist; critic

Mike Hulme, professor of climate change, University of East Anglia; founding director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research; author, Why We Disagree About Climate Change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity

Mick Hume, editor-at-large, spiked; writer for The Times

Tristram Hunt, broadcaster; lecturer in modern British history, Queen Mary, University of London; author, The Frock-Coated Communist: the revolutionary life of Friedrich Engels

Luke Johnson, chairman, Channel 4; chairman/owner, Giraffe and Patisserie Valerie/Druckers; chair, RSA; essayist, Financial Times

Bronwen Maddox, chief foreign commentator, The Times; author In Defence of America

Debbie Purdy, board member, Dignity in Dying; leading campaigner for right to assisted dying

Robert Skidelsky, emeritus professor, political economy, Warwick University; member, House of Lords; author, Keynes: the return of the master

Mark Walport, director, Wellcome Trust; formerly professor of medicine, Imperial College London

Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator, Financial Times; author, Fixing Global Finance

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Festival Buzz

Watch Battle of Ideas 2008 video...

"No word was untested, no argument taken for granted, no opinion dismissed without argument nor accepted without argument."
David Jones, professor of bioethics, St Mary's University College

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