Academy of Ideas

#PodcastOfIdeas: the battle for free speech on campus

Tom Slater, deputy editor of spiked, on this year's spiked Free Speech University Rankings.
A year ago, spiked‘s groundbreaking Free Speech
University Rankings (FSUR) revealed that there was active suppression of
speech and expression at 80 per cent of UK universities. Tom Slater,
deputy editor of spiked and coordinator of the FSUR project, talks to Rob Lyons about the FSUR 2016 and why, if anything, censorship on UK campuses is getting worse.

#BattleFest2015: Campus Wars - safe or sanitised?

From the Battle of Ideas 2015  Last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of
the launch of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) at the University of
California, Berkeley, through which academics and students successfully
overturned the censorious policies of university management. Against the
backdrop of McCarthyism, the FSM ushered in a new era of student
activism across the US and Europe, with free speech at its heart. So it
is striking that today, student radicals appear to be at the forefront
of calling for restrictions on what they and their fellow students are
allowed to say, read and hear.
In February, the online magazine spiked launched the UK’s
first Free Speech University Rankings. It found that 80 per cent of
universities censored speech, and that the vast majority of this was
carried out by students’ unions. No Platform policies, which originally
banned fascist speakers, are now used to ‘protect’ students from a wide
range of controversial ideas, and not only right-wing ones; even
feminist speakers have been disinvited because some students objected to
their views. At the other end of the spectrum laddish comedian Dapper
Laughs was banned from Cardiff University after campaigners claimed he
promoted ‘rape culture’. And last October, a high-profile debate on
abortion was cancelled at Christ Church, Oxford, after protesters
claimed the discussion would harm the emotional wellbeing of female
students and make them feel ‘unsafe’.
One former student union president has argued that while inviting
speakers is not in itself an endorsement, it could be seen as
‘legitimating their views as something that’s up for discussion’. Should
some issues be seen as beyond discussion, if discussing them is likely
to upset students? Toni Pearce, the current president of the National
Union of Students, has declared: ‘I’m really proud that our movement
takes safe spaces seriously.’ But should safety on campus really extend
to protection from emotional as well as physical harm? Or should
students be expected to cope with controversial ideas. Should campuses
be bastions of open debate, where anything goes, or does creating ‘safe
spaces’ actually allow many vulnerable students more opportunity to
speak their minds? Is this trend exclusive to campus life, or are
student leaders responding to a wider censorious culture? And what is
the future of student politics, now that spirit of the Free Speech
Movement seems a distant memory?







Speakers




Ian Dunt
editor, Politics.co.uk; political editor, Erotic Review




Christina Hoff Sommers
writer and resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute; host, weekly video series, The Factual Feminist




Gia Milinovich
producer, broadcaster, professional dork




Tom Slater
deputy editor, spiked; coordinator, Down With Campus Censorship!


Chair



Ella Whelan
staff writer, spiked; writer, Spectator

#BattleFest2015: Is technology limiting our humanity?

From Big Data to the driverless car, we seem
to live in an age of dizzying technological progress, which many hail
as a ‘new industrial revolution’. Robotic intelligence is becoming so
advanced that many warn machines could take white-collar jobs within a
generation, while computers are moving ever closer to passing the Turing
Test. Meanwhile, smart technology is increasingly marketed as desirable
for reducing the capacity for human error: Google’s developers note
that most accidents had by their driverless car are caused by other
drivers. Global companies such as IBM are involved in designing
purpose-built smart cities, such as South Korea’s Songdo, which can
manage the climate and water supply or respond to citizens’ movements in
real time.
While much of this seems cause for celebration – liberating us from
banal tasks and informing our ability to make choices – others sound a
note of caution. Wall Street’s ‘flash crash’ in 2010 was allegedly
caused by ‘spoofing’ technology tricking automated trading systems into
believing a share crash was taking place, wiping over £500 billion off
the market in a few minutes: an example of the real-world impact of
entirely virtual activity. It similarly remains unclear how the
driverless car would respond to systems failure or pedestrian behaviour.
Architect Rem Koolhaas raises the concern that cities where citizens
are ‘treated like infants’ with no ‘possibility for transgression’ are
not necessarily desirable places to live.
Is it troubling that innovation seems so concerned with eliminating
human failure or has that always been the aim of technological
development? Is humanity facing its ‘greatest existential threat’ from
today’s robots, as Tesla’s Elon Musk warns? Does the ‘new industrial
revolution’ mean a welcome transformation in how we interact with the
world or a limitation of our capacity in act waywardly and
unpredictably?







Speakers




Dr Tom Chatfield
writer and broadcaster; author, Live This Book! and How to Thrive in the Digital Age




Dr Norman Lewis
director (innovation), PwC; co-author, Big Potatoes: the London manifesto for innovation




Juliette Morgan
C&W Tech Global Lead – London
Head of Property – Tech City UK




Andrew Orlowski
executive editor, Register; assistant producer, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace




Dr Paul Zanelli
chief technical officer, Transport Systems Catapult


Chair



Claire Fox
director, Institute of Ideas; panellist, BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze

#PodcastOfIdeas: Charlie Hebdo, Corbyn’s reshuffle and Brexit

Charlie Hebdo one year on, Corbyn's reshuffle, debating Brexit and more
In this edition of the Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David Bowden discuss the state of free speech one year on from the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Labour’s seemingly interminable shadow cabinet reshuffle, David Cameron’s decision to allow his ministers to campaign for Brexit and the way the debate is shaping up, the latest absurd campaign in the war on sugar and Simon Danczuk’s texting shenanigans.

#BattleFest2015: Can the UK economy survive Brexit?

After the Conservative Party’s victory in
the general election, it now looks likely that David Cameron will follow
through on his promise to hold an in/out referendum on the UK’s
membership of the European Union by the end of 2017. Although Cameron
himself would prefer the UK to remain a member, there is now a serious
possibility of ‘Brexit’, particularly given the rise of UKIP and a
general disillusionment with the EU among many voters across the
political spectrum. Euroscepticism has re-emerged on the left, too, with
the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Jones calling for the UK to leave
the EU.
Business leaders have frequently warned of economic catastrophe if
the UK leaves the EU. One much-quoted estimate is that between three and
four million jobs depend on trade with the EU, though the claim that
these jobs would all be in jeopardy if the UK left is controversial. The
UK would likely continue to have free trade with the remaining members
of the EU. But the economic issues run much wider than trade. Brexit
could have significant implications for inward investment, the role of
the City of London as a global financial centre, UK influence on the
rules and regulations of a block that would remain a major trading
partner, as well as agricultural support, free movement of workers, and
so on.
But perhaps it would be wrong to see the question of EU membership in
narrowly economic terms. There is much concern that the EU now
determines large areas of UK law, while lacking the accountability to
voters that national parliaments have. The travails of the Eurozone have
dampened enthusiasm in many quarters for the long-term project of
‘ever-closer union’. Some see the possibility of Brexit not as a
rejection of Europe but as an opportunity to rethink our relationship
with other EU member states.
Is the EU reformable, or are its current ways of working too
entrenched? Would an independent UK be able to survive and thrive
outside the EU? Is Europe as we know it already doomed, or has it proven
itself capable of weathering the crisis?Recorded at the Battle of Ideas 2015







Speakers




Kishwer Falkner
Baroness Falkner of Margravine; chair, House of Lords EU Financial Affairs Sub-Committee; member, EU Select Committee




Thomas Kielinger
UK correspondent, Die Welt




Matthew Kirk
group external affairs director, Vodafone




Philippe Legrain
visiting senior fellow, LSE’s European Institute; author, Immigrants: your country needs them and European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess – and How to Put Them Right




Phil Mullan
economist; director, Epping Consulting business advice; author, The Imaginary Time Bomb


Chair



Peter Lloyd
consultant, financial markets research; campaigner, Manifesto Club; writer, Free Society

#PodcastOfIdeas: The tyranny of health

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick discusses public health's war on our bad habits.
In the run up to Christmas, the season of excess and indulgence,
Rob Lyons and David Bowden are joined by writer and retired GP Michael
Fitzpatrick to discuss the ever increasing curbs on our ability to eat,
drink, smoke and be merry.

#PodcastOfIdeas: Paris, bombing Syria and climate-change talks

Listen to the team discuss the Paris attacks, bombing Syria and the climate change talks
In this week’s Podcast of Ideas Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David
Bowden discuss the aftermath of the Paris attacks, intervention in
Syria, Jeremy Corbyn’s embattled position as Labour leader and this
week’s UN climate change conference .

#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