Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
Gas prices: is the only way up?
There are plans to use more gas in future – not just in the UK but across the world. From the point of view of climate change, this would be a disaster. But given rising gas prices, it also looks like bad news for our energy bills. This briefing sets out why we need to reduce our dependence on gas – not just for environmental, but economic reasons too.
Friends of the Earth, 12 March 2012
Why Cynthia's Choice Matters
Gay rights activists have denounced the Sex and the City star's "damaging" claim that she chose to be gay - but are they right?
Craig Fairnington,
DIVA, 25 January 2012
Smoking in cars: the BMA’s dodgy dossier
The campaign against lighting up in vehicles is as underpinned by misinformation as Blair's bluster on Iraq was. Why isn't there more scepticism?
Rob Lyons,
spiked, 17 November 2011
We are what our mums ate
With the help of old maternity notes, scientists have discovered that adult health is directly related to childhood nutrition
David Derbyshire,
Guardian, 6 November 2011
The growing epidemic of stats misuse
We have a difficult relationship with statistics. On one level, we seem to have replaced the 10 Commandments with the 10 Statistics – running our lives taking into account the need to limit our alcohol units, eat our 5 a day, read to our children, pay down our debts and reduce our stress levels. At another level, people show a cynicism of statistics which whilst not new (lies, damned lies….) does perhaps show a deeper level of mistrust than has existed previously.
Hilary Salt,
Independent, 6 November 2011
Surely by now we’ve outgrown the body?
So how, if at all, might the concept ’soul’ be useful? I think it’s useful precisely because of the aspect that defies natural science and seems to embarrass some of the concept’s exponents, namely the way it conveys a notion of transcendence or transformation.
Sandy Starr,
Independent, 2 November 2011
Facebook’s impact on the brain
Findings that parts of the brain can indeed be restructured rapidly by learning new tasks is nothing new.
Rob Clowes,
Independent, 1 November 2011
Electric selves?
The social web: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and the host of other technologies that invite us to connect to each other through a variety of internet-based interfaces seem to be technologies that provoke existential questions. Who are we? What are we? Where are we going?
Rob Clowes,
Culture Wars, 31 October 2011
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