Academy of Ideas

#BattleFest2016: France: liberté, égalité, fraternité today

Podcast: Rob Lyons speaks to Dr Shirley Lawes about the state of French politics and society
The world’s spotlight fell on France early this year with the
attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. The subsequent wave of
solidarity, which rallied France around the slogan ‘Je suis Charlie’,
was heralded by many as a bold reassertion of the nation’s commitment to
the liberal values of the French Revolution. Indeed, Voltaire’s
‘Treatise on Tolerance’ climbed to the top of France’s bestseller list
in the wake of the attacks. These sentiments seemed to be confirmed by
President François Hollande’s address to the nation, where he defended
France’s ‘attachment to freedom of speech’ and said that ‘in France all
beliefs are respected’. Nevertheless, this apparent liberal zeal was
undermined by a government crackdown the same week, which resulted in
the arrest of dozens of people, including the controversial comedian
Dieudonné, for inflammatory remarks about the attacks on social media.
Does France really know what it stands for any more? A 2013 Ipsos
study found that half of French people believe their country is
suffering cultural and economic decline, and just a third believe their
democracy works well. France’s assimilationist policies have failed to
integrate large swathes of migrants, with the banlieues of major cities
becoming deprived immigrant ghettos existing very much outside
mainstream French society. And despite France having some of the
toughest hate-crime laws in Europe, it now records the highest number of
anti-Semitic attacks in the world, with a seven-fold increase in such
violence since the 1990s. Meanwhile, laïcité, or civic secularism,
originally intended to separate church and state, has come to be seen as
a veil for discrimination against Muslims, especially with bans on
certain kinds of dress.
A different kind of attempt to assert what are said to be French
values can be seen in the rise of the far-right Front National under
Marine Le Pen, which was the largest party in the 2014 European
Parliament elections and won over 2000 seats in this year’s local
government elections. Some commentators on the old left point to the
weakening of the state as the problem, others mourn what they see as the
end of working class solidarity and the rise of individualism.
President Hollande’s election slogan was ‘le changement, c’est
maintenant’ - change is now. So what really has changed in France, and
how will it face the future?
In this podcast Rob Lyons speaks to Dr Shirley Lawes about the state
of French politics and society ahead of the session she is chairing at
the Battle of Ideas: France: liberté, égalité, fraternité today.
To find out more about this year’s festival and buy tickets visit the Battle of Ideas website.

#BattleFest2016: Eugenics - myth and reality

Rob Lyons speaks to Sandy Starr about the history of eugenics and whether the term is useful today
Using techniques like mitochondrial donation - ‘three-person
IVF’ - we can alter genes to resolve congenital medical conditions.
Other techniques that change our heritable characteristics will follow.
But such developments often inspire resistance: the ability to
manipulate our germlines is sometimes described as ‘eugenics’, invoking
the horrors of Nazi racial policies, although the term was coined by
Francis Galton in 1883. Are we going too far in altering our genes or
should we embrace the ability to conquer illness? Should we worry about
attempts to ‘improve’ human beings?
In this week’s podcast Rob speaks to Sandy Starr from the Progress Educational Trust and convener of the Battle over Life and Death
strand at this year’s Battle of Ideas about the dark history of
eugenics and the use and abuse of the term today ahead of a session he’s
chairing called Eugenics: myth and reality.
To find out more about this year’s festival and buy tickets visit the Battle of Ideas website.

#BattleFest2016: A tale of two cities - is inequality killing London?

Listen to the opening remarks from the Battle of Ideas launch event at the Barbican in LondonLondon
has, by most accounts, emerged as one of the premier cities of the
twenty-first century: firmly established as a global hub for finance,
technology and culture. Yet there have been growing anxieties about the
effect rising inequality levels are having on the city and its
inhabitants. Soaring private rental prices and strain on social housing
have fuelled fears about gentrification driving out long-term residents
as unfashionable neighbourhoods become regenerated. Such fears have also
begun to spread among the relatively affluent, with even the New York
Times‘s departing London correspondent bemoaning the distorting effects
of foreign investment into the capital’s ‘crazyexpensive’ property
market. Stories abound of young creatives being priced out to the extent
that they find commuting from Spain or Berlin a more affordable option.
More generally, there is a growing conviction that London’s development
is coming at the expense of a sanitised city, with public space
becoming increasingly privatised and stage-managed.While much ire
has been expressed at the stark disparity between London’s increasing
range of luxury tower blocks and ‘poor doors’ provided to inhabitants of
socially affordable accommodation, some have suggested that inequality
is not as big a problem as lack of adequate infrastructure. A range of
measures from rent controls to strict penalties for under-occupancy have
been suggested, although many are sceptical of their long-term impact.
Almost everyone seems to agree that a chronic lack of housing in the
city is driving prices through the roof, yet calls to build on the green
belt and relax planning regulations are met with strong opposition.Does
inequality pose a serious threat to the vibrancy of London? Would
measures such as rent control provide relief to the housing bubble, or
continue to distract from tackling the problems of supply? Is London in
danger of becoming a sanitised millionaire’s playground without urgent
action? Are concerns over ‘hipster gentrification’ a resistance to the
changing nature of the city, or is there a real threat posed by divided
communities in an increasingly expensive city? Should the capital’s
rapid development be a cause for celebration or concern?

#PodcastOfIdeas: making happiness policy

Rob Lyons speaks to philosopher Piers Benn about the nature of happiness and why it has become a Government policy objective in recent years.

#PodcastOfIdeas: Aylan Kurdi, the migration crisis and drone strikes

In this week's Podcast of Ideas Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David Bowden discuss the week's news, including the migrant crisis and the drone assassinations of two British Jihadis in the Islamic State.

#PodcastOfIdeas: US shootings, migrant crisis and robot wars

In this week’s Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David
Bowden discuss the murder of two journalists on live television by a
disgruntled former colleague in the United States, and the latest tragic
events in the ongoing European migration crisis. Rob talks to Martyn
Perks about the growing fears about the role of artificial intelligence
and robots in society in everything from manufacturing to warfare, and
why a machine could never become truly human, ahead of his session at
the upcoming Battle of Ideas session titled Man vs machine: who controls the robots?.
And after the release of this year’s GCSE results, Philip Walters comes
in to discuss the state of education in the UK and whether exams for
16-year-olds are necessary any more.   

#PodcastOfIdeas: Kid’s Company, doping and milk prices

Discussion of the news, race and policing in America and Immanuel Kant
In this edition of the Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and Dave Bowden discuss the big stories of the past few weeks, including the scandal at Kid’s Company, doping in sport and the row over falling milk prices. Rob speaks to Jean Smith from the New York Salon about race and policing in America ahead of her session on the subject at the Battle of Ideas, and we have Steve Murphy’s mini lecture from the Institute’s recent event University in One Day on Immanuel Kant and the nature of enlightenment.

#PodcastOfIdeas: Jeremy Corbyn, Lord Sewell and Ashley Madison

In this edition of the Podcast of Ideas Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and Dave Bowden discuss the big stories of the last few weeks including the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, the fall of Lord Sewell, the Ashley Madison leak, David Cameron's miguided strategy for tackling ISIS and the Brighton smoking ban.