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
Conservatory
Religious or Spiritual or Neither?
Saturday 20 October: 12.15pm-1.15pm
Pit Theatre
UK RIP?
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Blaming troubled families: licence to parent?
Frobisher 4-6
Whatever happened to the Arab Spring?
Saturday 20 October: 1.30pm-3.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Lessons from America: the new culture wars
Frobisher Auditorium 2
Youth today: unemployed or unemployable?
Conservatory
Lobbyists: the new hidden persuaders?
Saturday 20 October: 3.30pm-5.00pm
Pit Theatre
European Spring?
Frobisher 4-6
Racism today: alive and kicking?
Conservatory
Right to know: opening Pandora's box?
Saturday 20 October: 5.15pm-6.30pm
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?
Sunday 21 October: 9.30am-10.15am
Conservatory
The poppy: to wear or not to wear?
Sunday 21 October: 10.30am-12.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Free will: just an illusion?
Garden Room
US elections: the end of great expectations?
Sunday 21 October: 12.15pm-1.15pm
Conservatory
Why isn't poverty history yet?
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
Conservatory
Taxing our way to a fairer society?
Sunday 21 October: 5.00pm-6.15pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Building an intellectual legacy – the Battle for which ideas?
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?
Conservatory
Monarchy in the UK
Saturday 20 October: 1.30pm-2.45pm
Hammerson Room
Syria: the roots of the conflict and the road ahead
Saturday 20 October: 5.15pm-6.30pm
Hammerson Room
Devils in our midst? The Savile scandal and our culture of mistrust

Your conscience, my health: the right to refuse?

"The Battle of Ideas is a weekend like no other. I found the 2011 festival immensely stimulating. It gave me a great deal to think about, and a whole new list of books to read - from Virgil to Vygotsky. On to greater battles in 2012!"
Ken Macleod, award-winning science fiction writer; author, The Restoration Game and Intrusion

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