Academy Of Ideas

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, confused and demanding something better.

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.

Recording of an Academy of Ideas debate on Tuesday 28 June 2022. INTRODUCTION Around the world, prices of a wide range of goods and commodities have been rising sharply for the past few months. In particular, the wholesale cost of energy has been rising fast as the world economy recovered from the pandemic restrictions. Petrol prices have risen by almost a third in the past 12 months. The UK domestic energy ‘price cap’, which hit a low of £1,042 in 2020, is expected to rise to £2,800 in October. Consumer price inflation has hit 9% and is likely to reach 10% by the end of the year. For those on lower incomes, who spend more of their income on food and energy, the impact is even greater. There are multiple explanations for the rises: the post-pandemic recovery and problems with shipping have been widely cited. The war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia are hitting energy and food prices. Many economists also point to the rise in the money supply – thanks to ultra-low interest rates, quantitative easing and

This is a recording of United we stand? Ukraine and the future of the West, which took place on 20 April 2022: academyofideas.org.uk/event/united-we-stand-ukraine-and-the-future-of-the-west/   At first glance, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems to have led to an unexpected moment of unity among Western nations. After years of disagreements and talk of decline, Western countries responded to the invasion with tough sanctions and a unified front. Germany has announced a dramatic increase in military spending, Finland and Sweden are seriously exploring NATO membership, and even the Brexit tensions between the EU and UK have faded into the background.  In the words of Andrew Neil: ‘Now Britain stands tall, America is a reliable ally once more, the EU has found new purpose, NATO is more united than ever, and Germany has rediscovered its backbone.’ Commentators everywhere seem eager to christen this a triumph of ‘Western values’ – such as democracy or freedom – over backward, authoritarian values said to define Rus

This is a recording from the Scotland Salon - a panel discussion on the roots of the war in Ukraine and whether it offers any lessons for Scotland - held on Wednesday 13 April 2022: academyofideas.org.uk/event/solidarity-with-ukraine/ Scotland’s public debate on the war in Ukraine has been very low key. We have set up charity hubs for refugees, but we haven’t really engaged in a public discussion about the causes of the war or the right to national self-determination. The possibility of nuclear war, Putin’s recklessness and the energy crisis have tended to dominate the way we discuss the issue. There has been very little time and space to discuss the national rights of the Ukrainians. This is surprising given that many Scots are interested in the question of national self-government and would vote – perhaps even fight – for Scottish independence. Scottish politicians have been chastised for making crass connections between the war and Scottish independence. While it’s clear that the two situations are not dir

Recording of the Academy of Ideas Economy Forum discussion on Monday 4 April 2022. INTRODUCTION There have been many obituaries to globalisation since the big financial crisis of 2008. The dislocations caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the tough sanctions imposed upon Moscow have spawned another batch of them. Beneath this formulaic contemplation of “globalisation” versus “deglobalisation”, what sort of developments might unfold on the international economic front as a result of this conflict? For the immediate future, it seems clear that the economic damage from the military and economic warfare will go way beyond Ukraine and Russia. The repercussions are already aggravating the existing prospects for a sluggish 2020s in many advanced economies. But what about the possible longer-term economic consequences for the world? What might it mean for international economic relations? Could the war be a wake-up call for the Western nations to shake themselves from their economic torpor? If it ensues, wou

This is a recording from the Belfast Battle of Ideas, an event that took place in the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast on the 26 March 2022 in partnership with Imagine! Belfast Festival and the Academy of Ideas. Misinformation: Ukraine, Big Tech and online censorship As war rages in Ukraine, the limits of what we can say about such a major, epoch-defining event appear to be determined by a handful of Californian social-media giants. Facebook’s parent company, Meta has already announced the banning of Russian outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik from its platforms. Twitter has declared it will ‘label all posts containing links to Russian state-affiliated media outlets’. It’s not just Silicon Valley getting in on the act. Telegram, a Dubai-based messaging app created by two brothers who left Russia under pressure from President Putin, has threatened ‘to shut down channels related to the war because of rampant misinformation’. Meanwhile, the UK government has promised a ‘crackdown’ on university lecturers accuse

This is a recording from the Belfast Battle of Ideas, an event that took place in the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast on the 26 March 2022 in partnership with Imagine! Belfast Festival and the Academy of Ideas. Snowflakes Or Revolutionaries? Free Speech On Campus From decolonising the curriculum to gender-identity codes of conduct, free-speech controversies are a frequent feature of campus life. But while students are often lampooned as ‘over-sensitive’ or ‘snowflakes’, many believe that these students should be viewed as a radical generation of changemakers, whether championing LGBT rights or promoting racial equality. With the UK government’s new Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill aiming to ensure that universities are ‘bastions of free thought and intellectual debate’, some say student concerns are being ignored and their social-justice priorities undermined. How should students view free speech? Is there a risk of creating an ‘anything goes’ campus culture that prolongs the toxic culture wars? Do s

This is a recording from the Belfast Battle of Ideas, an event that took place in the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast on the 26 March 2022 in partnership with Imagine! Belfast Festival and the Academy of Ideas. Can Culture Survive The Culture Wars? Culture-wars divisions increasingly frame how we judge artistic works. Statues of slave traders have been ripped from pedestals, accusations of ‘transphobia’ result in the work of artists such as Jess de Wahls being removed from galleries, while books by controversial figures such as Norman Mailer and Woody Allen are pulled from the schedules by the new cultural arbiters in publishing. Musician Nick Cave has spoken for many when he said that cancel culture has an ‘asphyxiating effect on the creative soul of a society’. But others ask what is wrong with assessing works in line with contemporary moral or cultural mores. Given art seeks subjective emotional responses as well as objective judgement, should we really have to contend with abusers such as R Kelly or Maril

This event was held on 17 March 2022 hosted by the Academy of Ideas and the Free Speech Union: academyofideas.org.uk/event/free-speech-a-global-history-from-socrates-to-social-media/  Free speech is often hailed as the ‘first freedom’ and the bedrock of democracy. Free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. But free speech is also a challenging and even contentious principle that today is often considered to be under threat. In his new book, Free Speech: A Global History from Socrates to Social Media, Jacob Mchangama traces the fluctuating history of this idea, arguing that it is not enough to have free speech legally enshrined – it has to be culturally accepted too. While the desire to restrict speech has been a constant, what are the threats from free-speech sceptics that we should worry about most today and how have they come to be? At a time when ideas, language and even history itself are the target of contentious i

This meeting was held live at the Royal National Hotel on the 14 March 2022: academyofideas.org.uk/event/ukraine-in-the-crosshairs-of-history A famous old Russian once said: ‘There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.’ The past week feels exactly like that since Russia’s appalling decision to invade Ukraine. Not only will there be enormous bloodshed, but a nation’s independence and sovereignty is under threat. It feels like an earthquake has taken place in international relations, with old certainties undermined and gathering trends suddenly coming to fruition. We need to ask how we got to this point, what we need to do now and what the wider ramifications are. How did we get here? In all the confusion, the ‘Vladimir Putin is a mad dictator’ explanation really isn’t a good enough answer. We need a much better historical perspective than we’ve been getting so far, at the very least on events since the fall of the Soviet Union, but also how the current world order is, i

As war breaks out in Ukraine, the Academy of Ideas team is joined by Professor Frank Furedi and international affairs correspondent Mary Dejevsky to discuss Vladimir Putin's invasion and the fallout among Western nations. Articles discussed in the podcast: Patrick Cockburn in the Independent / Tom McTague in the Atlantic / Brendan O'Neill in spiked

Panel discussion organised by the Academy of Ideas Education Forum on 21 February 2022. INTRODUCTION As the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) approaches its 30th birthday, many are increasingly concerned that Ofsted is becoming overly political and moralistic and insufficiently educational in its approach. The anniversary of Ofsted’s creation seems a good moment to take stock. Ofsted employs more than a thousand people and has an annual budget of close to £130 million. For this, it takes responsibility for regularly inspecting all publicly funded schools and colleges in England. In addition to setting the agenda of her inspection teams, Ofsted’s head, Amanda Spielman, writes a widely read annual report on the state of state education. Spielman herself has strong educational, political and moral opinions, and intervenes regularly in public debates. Last year, for example, she rejected calls to decolonise the school curriculum. Ofsted was established in 1992 in the final phase of the Thatcherite ref

Recording of the Academy of Ideas International Salon panel discussion on 3 February 2022. https://academyofideas.org.uk/event/boiling-point-russia-and-the-west/ INTRODUCTION: Russian troops on the border of Ukraine, riots in Kazakhstan, brutal suppression of recent protests in Belarus, talk of a new Cold War, threats of catastrophic sanctions from America, and demands from Russia for new security guarantees. As negotiations begin between Russia and the West, how do we make sense of the confusing – and highly charged – state of East-West relations? Why have tensions continued to rachet up in the first place? Is there some validity to Russian security concerns amidst the enlargement of NATO and the EU, or is Russia to blame for seeking to expand its sphere of influence? Is this a genuine opportunity for Biden and Putin to lower tensions, or even negotiate a new settlement for relations between the West and Russia, after the chaotic collapse of the Soviet Union? Or is this just a prelude to further hostili

This is a recording from the Arts & Society Forum event - What’s in store for the arts in 2022? - that took place on 10 January 2022: https://fb.me/e/7cT8pWcle What can we expect of the arts in 2022? On the one hand, the measures taken to protect us against COVID19 have imposed onerous restrictions on the arts, closing down theatres, museums, galleries and most other venues. But the arts seem to be returning to life with renewed (if somewhat cautious) energy. On the other hand, controversy continues to dog the arts, whether it’s what to put on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, sponsors and patrons with unsavoury histories, artists who fall foul of new moral codes, or increasing calls for censorship and cancellation. These controversies might help to keep the arts in the public eye, but what impact do they have on artistic development and production? What can we expect in terms of new work of artistic merit? As 2022 gets started, after two years of hiatus and disruption, can we expect things to get

For our first Sportscast of Ideas of 2022, Geoff Kidder is joined by Academy of Ideas colleagues Alastair Donald and Rob Lyons, with special guest and Aussie, Charlie Pearson.

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021. WHAT ARE WESTERN VALUES - AND SHOULD WE DEFEND THEM? A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021:
 https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/what-are-western-values-and-should-we-defend-them/   The recent abandonment of Afghanistan by the UK and the US is widely seen as a humiliating defeat for the West. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the hurried exit and its consequences have led to a soul-searching discussion about what the West really means today. Are we prepared to fight for Western values, and do we even agree on what Western values are?

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021. THE POST-PANDEMIC RECOVERY: HOW IS IT GOING? A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/the-post-pandemic-recovery-how-is-it-going/ Will the post-pandemic recovery continue? Why has the UK economy experienced such a long period of relative stagnation, with productivity barely growing for years? What, if anything, can be done to change this dynamic? How can living standards be boosted in more deprived areas? The Covid-related economic crisis is itself unlikely to ‘change everything’, but to what extent could it be the catalyst for accelerating economic changes already underway?

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021. CAN SPORT SURVIVE THE CULTURE WARS? A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/can-sport-survive-the-culture-wars/ Is sport in danger of being consumed by these wider cultural issues or is it part of a healthy cleansing process? Is the praise heaped upon Biles and Osaka a sign that sport needs to change to put athletes wellbeing first?

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021. CARE FOR THE ELDERLY: THE FORGOTTEN MINORITY? A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/care-for-the-elderly-the-forgotten-minority/ Negative attitudes to the elderly go far beyond financial support. Long before COVID, social policy has been ambivalent about increased longevity. Far from being treated as unalloyed good news, the trend has often been problematised as a demographic time bomb, a financial burden to be paid for by the young and a drain on the NHS. Are these problems solely down to governments? If politicians have out-sourced elderly care, have some families themselves done the same, with Covid only highlighting the underlying weaknesses in intergenerational family bonds? How should we view care of the elderly in the future? What less