In our latest Podcast of Ideas discussion, Ella Whelan is joined by regulars Claire Fox, Alastair Donald and Geoff Kidder, plus guest Mark Birkbeck from the campaign group Our Fight. They discuss events in the House of Commons this week as an SNP-led debate on the Israel-Hamas conflict descended into farce, leading for calls for the speaker of the house, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, to resign. They also take a step back to look at the wider picture. What is to be done to counter the rise of anti-Semitism?...
Feb 24, 2024•40 min•Ep. 274
With the UK officially in recession, what should governments be doing? This debate was recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2023 on Saturday 28 October at Church House, London. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION With the Conservatives doing badly in the polls and Labour riding high, the UK could have a new party in government in the next year or so. How will this change the relationship between the state and the private sector – and will it boost economic performance and living standards? During the Corb...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 273
Recording of the debate at Battle of Ideas festival 2023 on Saturday 28 October at Church House, London. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION Being ‘diverse’ is no longer simply about shaking things up. Today, diversity is considered a core value of any civilised society and its institutions. Diversity strategies are a must for businesses, small or big – diversity is good for the planet, good for politics, good for social mobility and good for our sense of self. Diversity is no longer a means to a better futur...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 272
Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle of Ideas festival and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHAT WOULD A LABOUR GOVERNMENT LOOK LIKE? Recording of the debate at Battle of Ideas festival 2023 on Saturday 28 October. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION After Labour’s catastrophic haemorrhaging of Red Wall voters in 2019, and widespread disillusion among working-class Brexit voters, Labour seems to be back in contention. For some time, Labour h...
Feb 10, 2024•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 271
From the furore over PMQs and jibes about gender ideology to surveillance of football fans, international farming protests and Labour's latest U-turn, tune in to the latest Podcast of Ideas. Featuring the AOI team: Claire Fox, Rob Lyons, Geoff Kidder, Jacob Reynolds and Ella Whelan. Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack here: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe
Feb 08, 2024•30 min•Ep. 270
With Nicola Sturgeon the latest politician to be lambasted over WhatsApp messages - or the lack of them - listen to this debate from the Battle of Ideas festival 2023 on Saturday 28 October at Church House in London. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION From intimate selfies to leaking of personal messages, the digital age seems to relentlessly blur the boundaries between private and public. Not only are we encouraged to bare it all for social media, but the idea of private or secret communication is increasin...
Feb 02, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 269
Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival 2023 on Sunday 29 October at Church House, London. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION Too often, talking about race feels fraught with difficulty, leaving us walking on eggshells to avoid offence. However, this can mean that important questions and queries go unanswered, and grievances can fester. Luckily, more and more authors are taking up the challenge – and this session features three of them in conversation. Rakib Ehsan’s Beyond Grievance: What the L...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 268
Recording of the debate at the Battle of Ideas festival 2023 on Sunday 29 October. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION Trump is perhaps the most widely vilified political leader of modern times – yet he retains a huge measure of support. So seemingly assured of securing the Republican nomination that he can forgo the candidates’ televised debates, he also transformed his arrest for interfering with the 2020 election into a world-shaking media opportunity, with his mugshot reverberating across the globe. But w...
Jan 26, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 267
Recording of the debate at Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 29 October 2023. The wildfire in Hawaii in August is just one example of extreme weather and natural disasters in recent months. Southern Europe has baked in record temperatures. Indeed, July was reportedly the hottest month globally since records began. Earlier this year, wildfires in Canada covered much of the north-eastern US with smoke. There have also been major floods and landslides this year in Sweden, Slovenia and the Czech Re...
Jan 23, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 266
Was the UK government's Rwanda scheme for asylum seekers doomed to fail? Why has it taken 20 years for the young girls who were victims of Rochdale's grooming gangs to get justice? And why are they cheering the Houthis in New York?
Jan 21, 2024•45 min•Ep. 265
Former US president and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has been in the news constantly in recent weeks. Listen to this debate from the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 29 October 2023 which examines his popularity and trends in US politics. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION Trump is perhaps the most widely vilified political leader of modern times – yet he retains a huge measure of support. So seemingly assured of securing the Republican nomination that he can forgo the candidates’ televised debates,...
Jan 12, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 264
On the 75th anniversary of the founding of the UK's National Health Service, listen to this debate from the Battle of Ideas festival, recorded on Sunday 16 October 2022. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION In the wake of the pandemic, many people have expressed frustration about waiting times and the lack of face-to-face appointments with GPs. At the same time, doctors have threatened strike action over new contracts stipulating longer opening times to catch up with the backlog. In some areas of the country, ...
Jul 05, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 263
This is a recording from the Academy of Ideas' Arts and Society Forum , held on Wednesday 17 May 2023. English singer-songwriter Jack Hues discusses his varied musical career, key influences, inspirations and motivations – and shares his insights on how music is faring in our fast changing world and the culture war. Hues’ musical career and influences straddle popular and classical genres, from the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to Stravinsky, Beethoven and beyond. Having studied music at Goldsmiths a...
May 19, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 262
In this episode of the Podcast of Ideas, Jacob Reynolds talks to one of the students who was at the centre of the controversy surrounding Claire Fox's cancellation at Royal Holloway University, Omar Loubak. Omar was an organiser at the Debating Society, and has a unique insight into how these kinds of cancellations proceed on campus. Listen for an episode of Podcast of Ideas where he and Jacob discuss the case. Read More: https://clairefox.substack.com/p/cancel-culture-comes-for-claire-fox#detai...
Mar 24, 2023•15 min•Ep. 261
On 13 March 2023, the Arts & Society Forum invited Miriam Elia and Manick Govinda to discuss how Miriam develops her ideas as an artist and how she has managed to make a success of her art, in a competitive and sometimes hostile world. They covered broader issues, including what it means to challenge contemporary orthodoxies and ‘groupthink’, and how artists can survive the culture wars. Miriam is a conceptual artist, whose diverse work includes short films, animations, illustrated books, pr...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 260
BBC Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker sparked an enormous row last week after a tweet comparing the government’s language around illegal immigration to 1930s Germany. After he was taken off air, many of his colleagues downed tools in support. While Lineker may have made up with BBC management for now, the affair has thrown up lots of questions. Should we take Lineker’s comparison seriously? What does the affair say about the current state of free speech in the UK? Are his defenders being o...
Mar 13, 2023•43 min•Ep. 259
With Sue Gray and Simon Case in the news amid long-running complaints about the effectiveness and impartiality of the government machine, this Battle of Ideas festival 2022 debate seems very topical. SPEAKERS Nick Busvine OBE consultant; founding partner, Herminius Holdings Ltd; advisory board member, Briefings for Britain; Town Councillor, Sevenoaks; former diplomat, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Caroline Ffiske co-founder and spokesperson, Conservatives for Women Eric Kaufmann professor of p...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 258
Recording of the Academy of Ideas Education Forum discussion at Accent Study Centre, London on 28 February 2023 INTRODUCTION Following the recent announcement of industrial action by teachers, a Spectator column asked ‘Should teachers really go on strike?’. It argued that teachers are not nearly as enthusiastic about strike action as union leaders claim. While 53% of NEU members in England voted in the ballot, less than 50% of NASUWT members did, meaning the NASUWT ballot failed to meet the lega...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 257
Alastair Donald and Rob Lyons from the Academy of Ideas are joined by barrister Steven Barrett, Baroness Hoey and Lord Moylan to unpick the Windsor Framework.
Mar 03, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 256
Recording of the Academy of Ideas Economy Forum discussion on Tuesday 21 February 2023. Please note that this event was recorded via Zoom and there are occasional, short-lived issues with the audio. INTRODUCTION The Covid pandemic created huge disruption to the UK labour market. Millions of people were forced to stop working, with most receiving furlough payments. Millions more had to work from home. With lockdowns and pandemic-related business closures in the past, what has been the lasting imp...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 255
One year on from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Professor Frank Furedi talks to Rob Lyons about where things stand today, the causes of the conflict and the potential for peace.
Feb 24, 2023•14 min•Ep. 254
This is a recording of a public discussion hosted by the Academy of Ideas Arts & Society Forum on 24 January 2023. Arts institutions shape themselves and their policies around promoting social good, and have accepted a political agenda around climate change and identity politics. They want to be seen to be on the ‘right side’ of progress, but have they become overly instrumentalist and constraining in their approach? What harm are they doing to the development of the arts and artists? Now it...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 253
The UK Government’s decision to veto a bill passed by the Scottish Government, which would make it easier for children older than 16 to legally change their gender, has set off something of a political storm ( a great summary can be found over at Spectator by Iain MacWhirter ). Whilst this certainly has ramifications for UK-Scotland political relations, it also has set off a series of debates about gender identity, the rights of women, and even what the bill actually would mean in practice. With...
Jan 21, 2023•56 min•Ep. 252
This is guest podcast from our colleagues at Debating Matters. Initiated in 2015, Debating Matters Beyond Bars is a project which takes DM's schools-debating format inside prisons. Using our acclaimed substance-over-style format, teams of prisoners engage in debate with one another on a whole range of contemporary social, political and cultural topics. The programme aims to inspire them to think about issues beyond their current situation and to look forward to their life ahead – in other words,...
Dec 21, 2022•25 min•Ep. 251
Regular Sportscast of Ideas guests Geoff Kidder, Rob Lyons and Tom Collyer round up their World Cup highlights ahead of the final. Subscribe to our Substack to keep up-to-date with all of our work at the Academy of Ideas: clairefox.substack.com/subscribe
Dec 16, 2022•21 min•Ep. 250
Regular Sportscast of Ideas guests Geoff Kidder and Rob Lyons are joined by Tom Collyer, Denis Russell and Simon McKeon to discuss the kick off of the World Cup 2022. Subscribe to our Substack to keep up-to-date with all of our work at the Academy of Ideas: clairefox.substack.com/subscribe
Dec 02, 2022•25 min•Ep. 247
Regular Sportscast of Ideas guests Geoff Kidder and Rob Lyons are joined by Tom Collyer, Hilary Salt and Simon McKeon to discuss the kick off of the World Cup 2022. Subscribe to our Substack to keep up-to-date with all of our work at the Academy of Ideas: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe
Nov 25, 2022•31 min•Ep. 248
This is a recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2022 at Church House, Westminster: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/call-to-courage-winning-the-battle-of-ideas/ Subscribe to our Substack to get podcasts, updates and more: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe Today – at a time of enormous upheavals and significant political challenges – do we need to bring courage back into politics? There are certainly encouraging signs – do recent successes of gender-critical activists, the pu...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 249
Liz Truss has gone, and we’ll be on to another Prime Minister (or maybe even Boris). At the moment, things seem utterly out of our hands. That is why it’s so important we understand what is going on, what historical trends are shaping it, and, even now, what opportunities exist. Claire sat down with Academy of Ideas colleague Jacob Reynolds to do just that. At this moment, the key thing is to listen, read, think and argue. Please share our conversation with everyone you know who is angry, confus...
Oct 21, 2022•42 min•Ep. 246
Ahead of the Battle of Ideas festival 2022 in London on 15 & 16 October, Jacob Reynolds talks to Phil Mullan and Rob Lyons about the turmoil in the financial markets this week and the longer-term problems for the UK economy. For more about the festival, visit the Battle of Ideas festival website .
Sep 30, 2022•35 min•Ep. 245
