2012 Programme: Festival weekend overview

The Festival weekend includes more than 70 debates which are listed below ordered by time slot and room. To see Saturday or Sunday sessions only, select the day you want from the menu on the left or select sessions by Theme.

Or view and print out the Timetable as a two-page PDF.

Saturday 20 October: 10.30am-12.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
What's wrong with equality?
Pit Theatre
Is Europe... boring?
Frobisher Auditorium 2
One year on: assessing the state of the nation
Frobisher 4-6
Forced marriage to faith schools: the politics of multiculturalism
Fountain Room
Who needs art anyway?
Conservatory
Religious or Spiritual or Neither?
Garden Room
Manufacturing: the great comeback?
Saturday 20 October: 12.15pm-1.15pm
Lunchtime Debates Cinema 1
High and low culture: separated at birth?
Pit Theatre
UK RIP?
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Blaming troubled families: licence to parent?
Frobisher 4-6
Whatever happened to the Arab Spring?
Fountain Room
Bored of the Booker: prizes, prizes, everywhere
Conservatory
Social media: good? Or bad?
Garden Room
Gas galore? Fracking and the future of energy
Hammerson Room
Battle book launch and discussion: There Is No Such Thing As a Free Press
Saturday 20 October: 1.30pm-3.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Lessons from America: the new culture wars
Pit Theatre
Euro and the economy: the final countdown?
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Youth today: unemployed or unemployable?
Frobisher 4-6
A crisis of compassion: who cares?
Fountain Room
All together now: the rise of the choir
Conservatory
Lobbyists: the new hidden persuaders?
Garden Room
Engineering design or design engineering?
Saturday 20 October: 3.30pm-5.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Capitalism: kill or cure?
Pit Theatre
European Spring?
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Telling off the grown-ups
Frobisher 4-6
Racism today: alive and kicking?
Fountain Room
In search of originality: navigating the artistic canon
Conservatory
Right to know: opening Pandora's box?
Garden Room
Water, water, everywhere: not allowed to use it
Hammerson Room
Campaigning for freedom
Saturday 20 October: 5.15pm-6.30pm
Cinema 1
Can the law make us equal?
Pit Theatre
Europe's new far right, fear or fantasy?
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Pop-up communities: here to stay?
Frobisher 4-6
Genocide denial: should we defend the right to speak evil?
Fountain Room
Who is the greatest artist? Balloon debate
Frobisher Auditorium 1
Debating Matters Competition International Final
Garden Room
Commons people: music in a digital age
Sunday 21 October: 8.00am-9.00am
Barbican, Silk Street entrance
Battle of Ideas Urban Jog
Sunday 21 October: 9.30am-10.15am
Pit Theatre
Media-bashing live
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Born this way?
Frobisher 4-6
Baby culture vultures
Fountain Room
Everyone a runner?
Conservatory
The poppy: to wear or not to wear?
Garden Room
Illuminating the Middle Ages
Sunday 21 October: 10.30am-12.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Free will: just an illusion?
Pit Theatre
Stop the press: the media after Leveson
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Organ donation: dead or alive?
Frobisher 4-6
Are exams a cheat?
Fountain Room
Urban hubris and the great inequality debate
Conservatory
Austerity: here to stay?
Garden Room
US elections: the end of great expectations?
Sunday 21 October: 12.15pm-1.15pm
Lunchtime Debates Cinema 1
The Giants of Asia
Pit Theatre
Public inquiries in the dock
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Epigenetics: are you what your parents ate?
Frobisher 4-6
Free schools: myth and reality
Fountain Room
From the Colosseum to Wembley: crowd watching through the ages
Conservatory
Why isn't poverty history yet?
Garden Room
Do we live in a top-shelf society?
Sunday 21 October: 1.30pm-2.45pm
Keynote Controversies Barbican Theatre
The 21st-century case for freedom
Sunday 21 October: 3.15pm-4.45pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Risk, regulation and red tape
Pit Theatre
What is the truth?
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Abortion: a medical or a moral choice?
Frobisher 4-6
Students: consumers at the heart of a university?
Fountain Room
To build or not to build?
Conservatory
Taxing our way to a fairer society?
Garden Room
Character: skill or virtue?
Hammerson Room
London book launch and discussion: Snobs' Law: criminalising football fans in an age of intolerance
Sunday 21 October: 5.00pm-6.15pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Building an intellectual legacy – the Battle for which ideas?
Pit Theatre
Taming tabloid tittle-tattle
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Trust me: I'm a scientist
Frobisher 4-6
Research for the sake of it?
Fountain Room
Preservation or modernisation?
Conservatory
Occupy: illusory radicalism?
Garden Room
Drink, smoke, eat: prohibition today
Sunday 21 October: 6.30pm-7.30pm
Cinema 1
Atheism: what's the point?
Pit Theatre
What makes a good journalist anyway?
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Banning the Brave New World? The ethics of science
Frobisher 4-6
Are the kids all right?
Fountain Room
Looking back today
Conservatory
Monarchy in the UK
Garden Room
No future: has pop lost its radical edge?

Remaking citizens for the ‘Big Society’

"I thought the Battle of Ideas was wonderful. Especially the extent and quality of audience participation. I can't imagine how I missed this exciting forum for exchange of ideas in the past. I will certainly not miss another one and look forward already to 2012 Battle of Ideas."
Professor Marilyn Monk, emeritus professor of molecular embryology, University College London

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