Academy of Ideas

#BattleFest2015: The Corbyn Effect - are the old parties dead?

When Jeremy Corbyn went from being the token
lefty candidate for Labour leader to the favourite to lead the party
this summer, it became clear that the old assumptions no longer apply.
But while the ‘Corbyn Wave’ appeared to be something new, there was an
unmistakable paradox in the fact that the man of the moment had been
hiding in plain sight at Westminster since 1983. So is he a blast from
the past or a harbinger of things to come? Some suggest his rise
represents a momentous shift to the left. With its new £3 registered
supporter option, Labour’s ‘membership’ swell to 610,753, with many of
the new influx aged under 30. This seemed to echo the rise of the SNP in
Scotland as another example of the left-wing populism flaring up across
Europe in the wake of SYRIZA in Greece and Podemos in Spain. At the
same time, though, more long-established outsider parties like Britain’s
UKIP and France’s Front National have enjoyed considerable electoral
success, topping the European Parliament polls. With the unlikely
emergence of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as plausible US
presidential candidate, ‘politics as we know it’ seems to be over, but
it does not seem to be as simple as a move to the left.
The dramatic ascent of the Sweden Democrats, a party that describes
itself as socially conservative with a nationalist foundation, means
that when its leader Jimmie Åkesson predicts that his party will one day
be strong enough to run the country, serious commentators acknowledge
this is possible. It is as yet unclear whether these new political
parties command a stable support for specific policies. There seems a
more unstable ebb and flow of new parties in the spotlight and showing
disenchantment with mainstream politics by voting for the outsider can
appear more the sign of anti-politics rather than newly radicalised
times. Is it Corbyn’s old-fashioned state socialism programme attracting
solid support, or is his appeal that he is Not Blair Or The Other Three
candidates? And while UKIP gained four million votes in the general
election, their much vaunted rise is now side-lined as yesterday’s flash
in the pan story, with UKIP voters being amongst those enthusiastically
supporting Corbyn.
Why have populist parties become so popular? Does this mark the
beginning of the end for many established parties, or is it merely a
period of change, more about volatile protest votes than a new historic
era? Should we really take seriously some of these movements when they
may disappear as quickly as they emerged? If the Corbyn Effect is part
of this wider trend, will it last or will it crumble like Clegg-mania
amid broken promises and unrealistic ideas? Or are we in fact watching
the emergence of exciting new political movements, a reason to be
hopeful?







Speakers




David Aaronovitch
columnist, The Times; author, Voodoo Histories; chair, Index on Censorship




Alex Deane
managing director, strategic communications, FTI Consulting; Sky News regular; BBC Dateline London panellist




Andrew Gimson
author and political journalist; contributing editor, ConservativeHome




Miranda Green
journalist; founding editor, The Day; regular contributor to BBC political shows; former Lib Dem spin doctor


Chair



Bruno Waterfield
Brussels correspondent, The Times; co-author, No Means No

#BattleFest2015: The Paris attacks and the threat to an open society

Listen to the special Battle of Ideas satellite put on in Stockholm in the wake of the Paris attacks
At last weekend’s series of Battle of Idea Satellite debates in
Stockholm an impromptu session was held in response to last Fridays
terror attacks in Paris.
Speakers
Isobel Hadley-Kamptz
author and journalist
Kashif Mahmood Virk
imam, Stockholm Ahmmadiyya congregation
Brendan O’Neill
editor, spiked
Chair
Rob Lyons
science and technology director, Institute of Ideas

#BattleFest2015: Shifting sands - understanding the Middle East today

Listen to this session from the International Battles strand of the recent Battle of Ideas festival
In the past few years, the Middle East has undergone serious
convulsions, from the collapse of Iraq to the Arab Spring, the Syrian
war and the Saudi-led bombardment of Yemen. The spread of Islamic State
has wiped out one hundred-year-old borders in a matter of months, with
large areas of Iraq and Syria now part of those countries only in name.
America’s interest and power in the region seems to waning while
regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are becoming more
assertive.
A bewildering number of alliances and counter-alliances seem to be in
play in which religious affiliations, local political grievances and
powerful external players meet in a maelstrom. The Gulf states intervene
against and for Sunni jihadists depending upon which state one looks
at; America supports Iranian-backed militias in Iraq while backing
Saudi-led airstrikes against Shia groups in Yemen; in Syria, America and
its Arab allies are supporting Islamist groups against Assad, who is
still supported by Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. The US and
Iran appear to have reached a historic agreement on Iran’s nuclear
energy programme, just as US-Israel relations turn increasingly
fractious; indeed, Israel is closer to Saudi Arabia when it comes to the
nuclear deal, albeit for very different reasons.
The Arab Spring was supposed to mean the end of tyranny and the rise
of democracies across the region. Instead, states are imploding. Was
this inevitable, or is there still hope for peace and democracy within
the existing borders of countries like Syria and Iraq? Would their
break-up mean anarchy or a new order based on more meaningful religious
and ethnic identities? And while the Western powers were long considered
the puppet masters of the Middle East, are the strings now in the hands
of regional powers? Does the West even have a sense of its strategic
interests in the region, or is it stuck in the past, supporting the
wrong allies and condemning the region to years of chaos? What do the
confusing alliances and counter-alliances tell us? And what future is
there for the people of the Middle East?
Speakers
Gilbert Achcar
professor of development studies and international relations; chair of Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS, University of London
Rosemary Hollis
professor of international politics and director of the Olive Tree Programme, City University London
Dr Tara McCormack
lecturer in international politics, University of Leicester; author,
Critique, Security and Power: the political limits to emancipatory
approaches
Karl Sharro
architect; writer; Middle East commentator; co-author, Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture
Chair
Joel Cohen
judges co-ordinator, Debating Matters; freelance writer

#BattleFest2015: Anthropocene - are humans wrecking the planet?

#BattleFest2015: Planet of the Vapes - why is there a war on e-cigarettes?

In recent years, the
popularity of e-cigarettes has exploded. They have been celebrated by
many as being the greatest aid to smoking cessation ever invented, with
even the anti-smoking group ASH giving them grudging approval.
E-cigarettes do not contain the tar and toxins that make cigarettes
harmful, but as this is a relatively new technology, some argue we
cannot be sure of their long-term effects on people’s health. And even
if they do turn out to be harmless, detractors worry they will
‘renormalise’ smoking and act as a gateway to smoking for young people.
On these grounds organisations like the British Medical Association
say they should be subject to the same stringent regulation, advertising
bans and high taxes as tobacco. Internationally, a WHO report has
called for them to be banned in public globally and the sale of
e-cigarettes and the nicotine liquid they use is already banned in most
Scandinavian countries. Several US cities, including New York and
Chicago, have banned their use in public places.
As of 2016 in the UK, e-cigarette manufacturers will have to choose
between being regulated as a medicine by the Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency or adhere to strict new EU regulations that
would put them under similar regulation to tobacco products. The Welsh
Health Ministry has said it would like to ban their use in public places
and, across the UK, many pubs, workplaces, universities and public
transport companies have already banned their use despite the lack of
state coercion or public demand to do so.
There is resistance, however: the WHO report was met with an open
letter from a group of over 50 leading doctors and scientists from 15
countries urging them to reverse their call for a ban, stating that:
‘There is no evidence at present of material risk to health from vapour
emitted from e-cigarettes’ and that there is no ‘credible evidence’ that
e-cigarettes act as a gateway to smoking tobacco. 
Should the precautionary principle be applied in regard to
e-cigarette regulation? Should we be wary of the rise of e-cigarettes
when many say we should be striving towards a nicotine-free society? 
Or, is the movement to ban or hyper-regulate e-cigarettes less to do
with concern for people’s health and more about a broader culture war
over people’s lifestyle choices?







Speakers




Lorien Jollye
vaping advocate, New Nicotine Alliance UK




Dr Richard Smith
chair of trustees, ICDDR,B; former editor, British Medical Journal; chair, Patients Know Best




Christopher Snowdon
director, lifestyle economics, Institute of Economic Affairs; author, The Art of Suppression




Duncan Stephenson
director of external affairs, Royal Society for Public Health


Chair



Rossa Minogue
resources editor, Institute of Ideas

#BattleFest2015: The battle for geek culture

Debate at the Battle of Ideas 2015 (http://www.battleofideas.org.uk)With the rise of fantasy and sci-fi, geek culture is now mainstream. Yet trailing its success has come vicious infighting amongst fans. 'Gamergate' moved quickly from a dispute between game developers and journalists to a row over gamers' attitudes towards women. Dr Matt Taylor's choice of a bawdy shirt overshadowed his work in landing the Philae lander on a comet. The rise of social media has led to 'calling people out', harnessing the power of public shaming. 'Social Justice Warriors' have provoked sub-cultures such as 'Sad Puppies', who reject perceived politically correct orthodoxies. How are the frontlines of the culture wars changing?SPEAKERSAllum Bokhari (columnist, Breitbart)Serena Kutchinsky (digital editor, Prospect)Dr Maren Thom (researcher, film, Queen Mary University of London)Jason Walsh (journalist; foreign correspondent, CS Monitor)Milo Yiannopoulos (technology editor, Breitbart)

#PodcastOfIdeas: Battle of Ideas special

Trigger warning: 'If you're easily offended you really shouldn't come.' - Claire Fox
With just a few days to go before the Institute’s annual Battle
of Ideas at the Barbican in London, Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David
Bowden get together to talk about what makes the festival unique and why
it’s an unapologetically unsafe space where ideas are fought over and
contested, as well as discussing some of the sessions they’re looking
forward to most.
To find out more about this weekend’s festival and buy tickets visit the Battle of Ideas website.

#BattleFest2016: Are greens the enemies of progress?

Listen to the introductory remarks from last week's Battle of Ideas satellite in Amsterdam
We are living longer, healthier and richer lifes than ever
before. These trends have already spread to billions of people in poorer
countries. But are the costs of all this progress beginning to outweigh
the benefits? Greens worry that the Earth cannot sustain our desire for
more, more, more. Do their worries halt progress?
Some believe that environmental concerns have gone too far, putting a
brake on growth, especially in poor countries. Are the world’s poor
only allowed to experience ‘sustainable’ development? Lately, a new
brand of greens is emerging. These so-called ‘eco-modernists’ believe
the planet can be ecologically vibrant even with many billions more
people living a good life - if only we would use our scientific
knowledge to steward the world’s resources. But can science also tell us
what kind of balance is desirable between allowing humanity to flourish
while preserving the natural world? Maybe in the end, most people
simply do not care that much about nature. And what is a good life
anyway?
Has the modern idea of progress outlived its usefulness? Do we need
new ways of understanding progress, or is it environmentalism that needs
an overhaul? And what role do greens play in this debate? Do they want
to halt progress, or simply to redefine it? Or might their redefinition
be another way of halting development? Is progress ultimately a myth?
SPEAKERS
Brendan O’Neill
editor, spiked; columnist, Big Issue; contributor, Spectator
Frank Mulder
researcher, writer and journalist; ; columnist, De Groene Amsterdammer; author, De geluksmachine (The Happiness Machine)
Ted Nordhaus
chairman, Breakthrough Institute
Joris Thijssen
campaigns director, Greenpeace Netherlands
To find out more about this year’s festival and buy tickets visit the Battle of Ideas website.