Overview

This is our programme for 2026. You can download the festival brochure and the weekend timetable in PDF format. Tickets are available here. To keep up-to-date with the latest festival news, sign up to the Academy of Ideas Substack.

Weekend Saturday Sunday Strands

09:45-10:00 Saturday 17 October

Battle of Ideas festival 2026 Welcome Address

Assembly Hall, Church House

10:15-11:45 Saturday 17 October

(How) can the UK survive the debt crisis?

Convocation Hall, Church House

Surrogacy: buying a baby or building a family?

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

Controlling the narrative? The politics of misinformation and truth

Assembly Hall, Church House

Podcast Live: The Life Sci Fantastic – weight-loss jabs: the end of willpower?

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

Should we put Britain first? The ‘national interest’ question

Wash House Café, The Abbey Centre

Why are influencers so influential?

Westminster Room, Church House

From quiet quitting to #lazygirljobs: workshy Britain?

Hospitality Suite, Church House

The corruption of the university?

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

From boycotts to renaissance: threats and opportunities in the arts

Council Room, Church House

Let me convince you: We should not ban the burqa

Abbey Room, Church House

Letting abusers out early: solving the prisons crisis

Parker Morris Hall, Abbey Centre

After the wildfires and floods: should we reassess climate change?

Temple Room, Church House

12:15-13:30 Saturday 17 October

From energy caps to rent controls: can the state run the market?

Convocation Hall, Church House

The spiked podcast – Live: Latest in politics, free speech and the culture war

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

From Pride to Palestine: who are today’s Greens?

Temple Room, Church House

Europe’s migration chaos: can we learn from the ‘Danish model’?

Wash House Café, The Abbey Centre

Will Reform be allowed to rule? Taking on The Blob with Danny Kruger

Assembly Hall, Church House

From metro mayors to Manchesterism: a devolution revolution?

Parker Morris Hall, Abbey Centre

Let me convince you: Britain needs a US-style free-speech First Amendment

Abbey Room, Church House

Lies, damned lies… let’s talk about stats

Westminster Room, Church House

From ADHD to autism: negotiating the special-needs crisis

Hospitality Suite, Church House

FIFA, Manchester City and the future of football

Council Room, Church House

Is it Islamism – or is there a problem with Islam?

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

Hounded: social accountability or bullying?

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

13:45-14:30 Saturday 17 October

Exploring autonomy and identity: what is disability anyway?

Hospitality Suite, Church House

Podcast Extra: Arts First: myth, religion and national identity

Council Room, Church House

What has the BBC ever done for us?

Parker Morris Hall, Abbey Centre

FAFO parents and the return of Big Boss Mum

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

The death of enterprise: are regulations strangling business?

Convocation Hall, Church House

After Arday: is Sociology worth saving?

Temple Room, Church House

Podcast Live: This Isn’t Working – are women to blame for ‘woke’ workplaces?

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

14:45-16:15 Saturday 17 October

WTF is Manchesterism… and can it save the economy?

Convocation Hall, Church House

From voting systems to parliamentary reform: constitutional vandalism?

Westminster Room, Church House

Stop the press! Media is biased… or is it?

Temple Room, Church House

Puberty-blockers scandal: the ethics of clinical trials

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

Once upon a time: children’s literature and the culture wars

Council Room, Church House

Is America living up to the ideals of the Founding Fathers?

Wash House Café, The Abbey Centre

Social care crisis: who should look after our elderly?

Hospitality Suite, Church House

Let me convince you: the United Kingdom is over – good!

Abbey Room, Church House

We don’t ‘do God’: have we lost faith in secular liberalism?

Assembly Hall, Church House

Podcast Live: The Free Speech Union – on the free speech frontline

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

Visas for all? Britain’s immigration scandal

Parker Morris Hall, Abbey Centre

White working class: forgotten demographic or identity grievance-mongering?

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

16:45-18:15 Saturday 17 October

From Vietnam to Iran, why can’t the West win wars?

Wash House Café, The Abbey Centre

Podcast Live: The Brink – Islam in Britain after October 7

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

Will the pensions ‘triple lock’ bankrupt Britain?

Hospitality Suite, Church House

Let me convince you: we must defend liberalism

Abbey Room, Church House

Should we tolerate the intolerant?

Assembly Hall, Church House

We don’t need no indoctrination: the politicisation of education

Temple Room, Church House

From womb transplants to caesareans: brave new world of fertility?

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

What is racism anyway?

Westminster Room, Church House

From Kemi’s Tories to Andy’s Labour: can the legacy parties make a comeback?

Parker Morris Hall, Abbey Centre

When activism meets the arts

Council Room, Church House

Don’t look back! Escaping the EU’s economic doom loop

Convocation Hall, Church House

GB News Free Speech Nation with Josh Howie

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

10:00-10:45 Sunday 18 October

Who would be a mum today?

Hospitality Suite, Church House

Brexit: the facts strike back

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

From vape shops to gambling: the rise and rise of the black market

Council Room, Church House

Can the Socratic dialogues help us navigate ethics today?

The Chapel, Church House

War on women: ‘independent publishing for those who refuse to be cancelled’

Convocation Hall, Church House

Benjamin Britten, 50 years on: still the nation’s composer?

Westminster Room, Church House

From historymaxxing to nation-building: unpicking the Bayeux Tapestry mania

Abbey Room, Church House

Sanctioning Israel: principle or prejudice?

Temple Room, Church House

11:00-12:30 Sunday 18 October

What’s China up to in the Middle East?

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

Angry young women? The rise of the femosphere

Westminster Room, Church House

Podcast Live: Planet Normal – News and views from beyond the bubble

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

Is the Social Contract broken? The fight for the soul of democracy

Assembly Hall, Church House

Conversion Practices Bill: criminalising parents, teachers and priests?

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

Hedgerows vs highways: the urban / rural divide

Temple Room, Church House

Why is policing Britain so difficult?

Hospitality Suite, Church House

Dystopia versus utopia: does AI change everything?

Convocation Hall, Church House

Will the new New Media finally kill off the MSM?

Council Room, Church House

The reparations debate

Abbey Room, Church House

Podcast Extra: The Booking Club with Jack Aldane – The Catcher in the Rye, 75 years on

Church House Café

12:45-13:30 Sunday 18 October

Are drones ready for take-off?

Temple Room, Church House

French Elections 2027: chaos in France… turmoil in Europe?

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

Opinion polling: democracy’s friend – or foe?

Convocation Hall, Church House

Meet the authors: Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit

The Chapel, Church House

AI content: genius or garbage? We ask AI

Council Room, Church House

Middlesbrough: what just happened?

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

LGB & TQI+: the history and future of a forced marriage

Hospitality Suite, Church House

Podcast live: Spectator’s Coffee House Shots

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

13:45-15:15 Sunday 18 October

To Kill a Mockingbird: timeless or outdated?

Church House Café

Finally Trumped: who’s the heir to MAGA?

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

Should we scrap The Equality Act?

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

Techlash: blaming social media for everything

Council Room, Church House

Free speech for me and not for thee? the red lines in free expression

Assembly Hall, Church House

Power to the people: can energy policy rebuild Britain?

Temple Room, Church House

NHS, Police, BBC… is politicisation corrupting public services?

Hospitality Suite, Church House

Podcast Live: The State of It – reports from the coalface of British politics

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

Hard hats or graduation caps: can schools solve the NEETs problem?

Westminster Room, Church House

The great realignment: the rise and woes of populism

Convocation Hall, Church House

Letters on Liberty: Islamo-Leftism: new challenges to freedom

Abbey Room, Church House

15:45-17:00 Sunday 18 October

Anti-social Britain: why do we feel unsafe?

Convocation Hall, Church House

Podcast live: Last Orders – the latest nanny state news

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

Has neoliberalism failed? An alternative strategy for reindustrialisation

Temple Room, Church House

Women betrayed: should we smash the unions and start again?

Hospitality Suite, Church House

The Odyssey: cinematic sensation or sin against the Greeks?

Church House Café

Grooming gangs to the Nottingham Inquiry: untangling accountability

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

Zoe Strimpel on Good Slut: How Money, Sex and Power Set Women Free

Westminster Room, Church House

What does international development mean to you? Foreign aid and its discontents

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

From cultural icons to background noise: what happened to the bands?

Abbey Room, Church House

Do we know our enemy? Untangling terrorism and extremism

Assembly Hall, Church House

From surveillance to censorship: rolling back the laws

Council Room, Church House

17:15-18:30 Sunday 18 October

The Great Sex Recession: Has Gen Z forgotten how to date?

Westminster Room, Church House

Is anti-Zionism really antisemitism?

Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House

Assisted death to sexual freedom: autonomy and its discontents

Hospitality Suite, Church House

Post-trans mania: the future for women in sport

Robert Runcie Room, Church House

Suicidal empathy: is the West killing itself with kindness?

Assembly Hall, Church House

TikTok Andy and No.10 North: performance over substance?

Convocation Hall, Church House

Podcast Live: Take Me Home – Growing up in the Culture Wars

Harvey Goodwin Suite, Church House

Who is council housing for?

Temple Room, Church House