Academy of Ideas

#PodcastOfIdeas: Does Britain need an industrial strategy?

Rob Lyons talks to Patrick Hayes, director of the British Educational Suppliers Association, about the UK government's recent consultation document on industrial strategy, why Brexit has focused the minds of politicians on economic growth and why we need to be far more ambitious about supporting research, innovation and wider development.

#PodcastOfIdeas: John Bercow’s snub, protests on campus and Living Freedom

Rob Lyons is joined by Claire Fox and Alastair Donald to discuss the UK government's housing strategy, John Bercow's refusal to invite President Trump to address parliament and the protests against invited speakers on US campuses. The team also discuss a new Institute of Ideas initiative, Living Freedom.

#BattleFest2016: The UK economy after Brexit - sink or swim?

This week, the latest GDP figures revealed that the UK economy continues to grow faster than expected, despite the vote to leave the European Union. In fact, in 2016, the UK economy grew faster than any of the other G7 industrialised countries.
But will these good times last? Earlier this month, the prime minister, Theresa May, announced that she intended to leave both the EU's single market and customs union. It was just such a scenario that led to some of the bleakest economic forecasts before the referendum vote. However, economists who argued for a vote to leave the EU are generally sanguine about the future, believing the EU had become a barrier to further economic growth. What should the UK look for in negotiations with the remaining member states of the EU?
In any event, are things really so rosy? At a time when all the major economies are struggling, are the latest growth figures a sign of a robust economy or do they simply leave the UK as, temporarily at least, the strongest of an increasingly feeble bunch? Are there more fundamental questions to be asked about the possibilities for creating wealth for everyone in the future, like questioning the poor productivity of the UK economy? Are questions about our relationship with Europe really just a sideshow to more deep-rooted problems?
SPEAKERS
Daniel Moylanformer deputy chairman of Transport for London; Conservative Councillor; co-chairman, Urban Design London
Phil Mullaneconomist and business manager; author, Creative Destruction: How to start an economic renaissance(forthcoming)
Merryn Somerset WebbEditor in Chief, MoneyWeek
Andreas Wesemannpartner, Ashcombe Advisers LLP; author, The Abolition of Deposit Insurance

#PodcastOfIdeas: Trump’s inauguration and Theresa May’s Brexit speech

Rob Lyons is joined by Claire Fox and Geoff Kidder to discuss Donald Trump's inauguration, the attitude of liberals and the media to Trump's supporters and offer their thoughts on Theresa May's Brexit speech.

#BattleFest2016: Is utopian thinking dead?

As a new year begins, thoughts turn to the future. But how do we see the year - or the decade - ahead? Do we think that things will get better, that our lives will improve, or will we be stuck in a gloomy mind-set that suggests that the world is going to hell in a handcart? Can we imagine a truly prosperous world where everyone lives in peace - a true utopia?
Does the concept of utopia represent an unattainable ideal – or the kind of idealistic ambition that can promote change in the real world? Debates about technological progress seem to vacillate wildly between utopianism and dystopianism. At a time when innovation is universally celebrated and culturally validated, it also appears to be in a constant state of crisis. Utopian optimism seems destined to remain divorced from practical applications, useful only in terms of blue-sky thinking. But are the constraints on innovation a matter largely of investment and official focus, or are there cultural and intellectual issues too?
This Battle of Ideas debate offered a chance to explore our attitudes to the future.
SPEAKERS
Dr Yaron Brookexecutive director, Ayn Rand Institute; co-author, Equal is Unfair: America’s misguided fight against income inequality
Dr Eliane Glaserwriter, lecturer and radio producer
Dr Norman Lewisdirector (innovation), PwC; co-author, Big Potatoes: the London manifesto for innovation
Karl Sharroarchitect; writer; Middle East commentator; co-author, Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture
Kirsty Stylestalent and skills programme lead, Tech North

#BattleFest2016: The new populism

Britain’s vote to leave the EU, the election of Donald Trump and the high opinion poll ratings of Marine Le Pen’s Front National have led to anxious debate about the rise of populism, inspired by what many regard as a rogues’ gallery of demagogic leaders of rising anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic movements throughout Europe and the US. The declining appeal of traditional parties of both left and right has been apparent for a generation, and now seems to have reached a head, to the consternation of those who see the new populism as a rejection of common sense. At the height of the referendum campaign, the Guardian’s Martin Kettle articulated the exasperation of the political establishment at the evident disaffection of the masses when he described support for Brexit as ‘part bloody-mindedness, part frivolity, part panic, part bad temper, part prejudice’.
Almost invariably, the concept of populism is used in a pejorative way. It is often preceded by the implicitly disparaging adjective ‘right-wing’ and directly linked to notions such as racism, ‘xenophobia’ or ‘Islamophobia’. Yet in the past, populist movements have as commonly had a left-wing as a right-wing character. They have often expressed an inchoate animosity towards a corrupt elite. Such movements are inherently unstable and tend to evolve, according to circumstances, in either a radical or reactionary direction. Recent political phenomena such as Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain, the Five Star Movement in Italy, and the successes of Bernie Sanders in the USA and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, show the complexity of the popular movements that have emerged to fill the vacuum left by the decay of the old politics.
Mainstream politicians and commentators fear the polarisation resulting from the rise of populist movements, but seem unable to engage the public through open debate. Others argue that the upsurge of popular discontent with the stagnant political order points the way towards the revival of democratic politics, and is worth celebrating even if it unleashes uncomfortable sentiments. Are populist movements merely ‘morbid symptoms’ of a decadent political order, or harbingers of a democratic renewal?
SPEAKERS
Nick Caterexecutive director, Menzies Research Centre, Australia; columnist, The Australian
Ian Dunteditor, Politics.co.uk; political editor, Erotic Review
Ivan Krastevchairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia; permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna
Jill Rutterprogramme director, Institute for Government
Bruno WaterfieldBrussels correspondent, The Times; co-author, No Means No

#BattleFest2016: What’s the truth about ’post-truth’ politics?

Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas 2016.
In November, Oxford Dictionaries declared ‘post-truth’ its Word of the Year. For some commentators, both the US presidential campaign and the EU referendum in the UK have revealed the emergence of ‘post-truth’ politics. Donald Trump has dismissed fact-checking as an ‘out-of-touch, elitist media-type thing’. Former Tory minister and Brexit leader Michael Gove notoriously claimed that ‘people in this country have had enough of experts’.
Have experts been over-reaching themselves and intruding into matters that require political judgement rather than statistics? On the other hand, if people scorn evidence, will society sink into the mire of prejudice and superstition? Have the majority of voters really given up on assessing the evidence?
SPEAKERS
Professor Frank Furedisociologist and social commentator; author, What’s Happened to the University?, Power of Reading: from Socrates to Twitter, and Authority: a sociological history
Josh LoweEuropean politics reporter, Newsweek
Neena Modiprofessor of neonatal medicine, Imperial College London; consultant in neonatal medicine, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust; president, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Dr Adam Rutherfordgeneticist, science writer and broadcaster, BBC; author, Creation and A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived.

#PodcastOfIdeas: Josie Appleton on The rise of the Busybody State

From parking wardens generating record profits for councils through to bans on smoking and busking, the authorities are making more and more previously normal activities illegal or subject to onerous regulation. Yet it is not clear who benefits from this micromanagement of our lives.
Here, Josie Appleton talks about her new book, 'Officious: The rise of the Busybody State', which examines the causes and consequences of this trend.