Academy of Ideas

#PodcastOfIdeas: Was Brexit a democratic awakening?

Podcast: Invoke Democracy Now's Rob Killick speaks to Rob Lyons

Since the vote to leave the European Union in June, the
government has equivocated about when it will trigger Article 50 of the
Lisbon Treaty, initiating the two-year process to exit the EU.
Meanwhile, a host of individuals and organisations, from law firms and
business tycoons to high-profile politicians and rock stars, are doing
everything in their power to overturn the referendum result. In this
week’s Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons talks to Rob Killick, a founder of Invoke Democracy Now,
a group campaigning for Britain to leave the EU without delay, about
the urgency of triggering Article 50 and how Brexit has reinvigorated
the democratic spirit while giving an aloof political establishment the
shock of a lifetime in the process.
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#EconomyForum: The UK economy after Brexit

Podcast of Rob Lyons' opening remarks from this week's Institute of Ideas Economy Forum

The vote to leave the European Union has left the world’s
economic experts, politicians and economic officials stunned. Voters
were told that leaving the EU would hit the UK economy hard, with the
only question being over what future arrangements might be made with the
EU. If the UK negotiates membership of the European Economic Area, the
so-called ‘Norway option’, then trade would be largely unaffected. But
such a deal would almost certainly require the UK continuing to allow
free movement of EU citizens into the UK, something that is currently
regarded as politically contentious. The alternatives, from a
Swiss-style bespoke arrangement to a situation with no deal at all, with
trade governed by World Trade Organization rules, seem to offer a
sliding scale from ‘very negative’ to ‘disastrous’.
A minority, particularly the Economists for Brexit group, argue that
leaving the EU will allow the UK to trade freely with the rest of the
world and ditch pointless EU regulations, with the prospect of a revival
in economic growth as a result.
But when it comes to future prosperity, is there too much focus on
the UK’s status within Europe? A week after the vote, the government
reported another damning set of current account statistics, confirming
how much more Britain imports than exports. The government finances
still look weak and there is an ongoing and anguished debate about the
poor productivity of the economy. George Osborne’s declared aim of
‘rebalancing’ the economy, both between North and South, and towards
manufacturing, seem to have come to nought. And the economies of the
Eurozone hardly seem in the best of health, either, with the only
question seemingly where the next crisis will hit. Greece? Italy?
Perhaps even France?
So what does the future hold? What kind of deal should the UK aim to
strike with the EU? While we fret about Europe, should we really be
worrying about problems closer to home?

#PodcastOfIdeas: Austin Williams on China’s cities

Rob Lyons speaks to architect Austin Williams.

In this week’s Podcast of Ideas architect Austin Williams speaks
to Rob Lyons about China’s remarkably rapid urbanisation in recent
years, and the tension between individual freedom and progress.

#BattleFest2015: Georgios Varouxakis on JS Mill’s On Liberty

Few texts have sustained such extensive reference and quotation in Anglo-American politics as JS Mill’s classic.
Mill’s famous ‘Harm Principle’ – that government power may only be justifiably used to prevent harm to others, not to improve one’s own good – still provides the ground on which numerous debates around civil liberties, lifestyle choices, and more recently ‘nudge theory’ are fought. Moreover, Mill’s rousing defence of the liberty of the press never ceases to be relevant. Yet it is imperative to understand the aims and context of On Liberty if Mill’s arguments around press liberty and the Harm Principle are to be properly understood – as the endless argumentation about what ‘harm’ means shows.
Attending to the whole of On Liberty, in the spirit of pursuing knowledge for its own sake, shows these familiar ideas in a new light. By tackling this canonical work as a whole we gain valuable insights into Mill’s inspiring defence of personal autonomy, and see quite how at odds Mill would have been with contemporary political rhetoric – just as he was in his own time.
Georgios Varouxakis professor of the history of political thought, Queen Mary University of London; author, Mill on Nationality

Live Special: Brexit - the battle for democracy starts here

Listen to this week's public event in London.
Seventeen million people voted to leave the EU last Thursday, an historically important democratic moment. Yet there are already attempts to thwart or row back from this decision. Many have signed a petition urging a second referendum so that voters can give the ‘right answer’; others threaten the vote with lawyers and bureaucratic challenges. There is contempt for voters who effectively revolted against an establishment that told them they should vote Remain. There seems to be a special brand of bigotry aimed at white working-class voters, with talk of ‘sewers’, and sections of the electorate being castigated for their ignorance and xenophobia. Others seek to stir up a distasteful generational revolt, prompting some younger Remain voters to turn on anyone over 60 with vicious accusations of selfishness and betrayal.
This should be a moment that feels pregnant with possibilities, opening up chances for shaping the future. And yet many feel scared — genuinely scared. Uncertainty and change can be disconcerting. Democracy has been revealed as more than a paper exercise: people now know it has very real consequences.
How should we interpret the vote for Brexit? What should democrats do to ensure that popular sovereignty is not squandered? How can we best shape positive developments in future months, and ensure that this democratic moment is not neutralised?
At this meeting held earlier this week, organised by the Institute of Ideas and spiked, Professor Frank Furedi, author of Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right and Authority: A Sociological History, gives an opening talk and Claire Fox, Director of the Institute of Ideas responds. Tom Slater, deputy editor of spiked, introduces and chairs.

#PodcastOfIdeas: a Brexit, post-referendum special

Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David Bowden discuss the fallout from the Brexit vote.
In a historic week where the British public voted to leave the European Union, sparking one of the most tumultuous political upheavals in living memory and causing hysteria across the political establishment and the media, Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David Bowden offer some much needed sane analysis and give their visions of where we should go from here to ensure we build a more democratic, more prosperous and freer Britain. 

#BattleFest2015: We the People, you the Mob?

From controversial law cases such as that of the footballer Ched
Evans through to intense bursts of outrage at offensive jokes or
unpopular opinions, the Twitterstorm seems to have replaced the mob in
twenty-first-century imagination. While some defend the use of such
tactics as a (mostly) harmless letting off of steam, others have become
increasingly uncomfortable about what such tactics mean for the state of
public debate more widely. In his much-discussed book, So You’ve Been Publically Shamed,
journalist Jon Ronson explored the real-world effects of such
vituperative mob justice, from unfairly destroying reputations to
ruining lives: last year, an investigation into ‘trolls’ targeting the
parents of Madeleine McCann ended in the suicide of one of the accused.
From psychologist Gustave le Bon’s 1895 work, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, to Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible,
and even behavioural economics, there has been no shortage of
intellectual inquiry into the nature of mobs, yet little consensus about
what defines them. Protestors accused of mob violence in riots across
US cities counter that it is heavy-handed police responses that turned
organised demonstrations into anarchy. Meanwhile, claims that vigilante
mobs mistakenly attacked paediatricians during the child-abuse panic at
the start of the millennium have been found to have said as much about
prejudices about the mob as the mob itself. If fear of the mob is
nothing new, however, is there anything different about its spectral
online version?
Why does the concept of mob rule seem to haunt public debate at a
time when the masses play such a minor role in mainstream politics? Has
the mob found a new home in the online world, with its seeming hostility
to traditional forms of hierarchy and authority? Does the fear of mob
rule reveal an elitist contempt for mass politics, or an anxiety that
contemporary institutions lack the strength to articulate popular
frustration? 

SPEAKERS




Josie Appleton

director, civil liberties group, Manifesto Club




John Coventry

global communications director, Change.org




Rupert Myers

barrister and writer




Daniel O'Reilly

comedian, aka Dapper Laughs




Cathy Young

contributing editor, Reason magazine; author, Ceasefire! Why women and men must join forces to achieve true equality



CHAIR



David Bowden

associate director, Institute of Ideas

#PodcastOfIdeas: Jo Cox, Orlando and the referendum

Claire Fox, David Bowden and Rob Lyons discuss the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, its implications for the EU referendum campaign and the parallels with the Orlando night-club massacre.