2013 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 19 October: 10.30am-12.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Is nothing private anymore?
Institutions in crisis? Cinema 2
Great leaders: born or made?
Saturday 19 October: 12.15pm-1.15pm
Private or public morality? Frobisher Auditorium 2
Time to get serious about irony?
Saturday 19 October: 1.30pm-3.00pm
Battle for our minds Pit Theatre
Legal highs and club drugs culture
Institutions in crisis? Cinema 2
Church and state: a marriage on the rocks?
School Fights Frobisher 1-3
One to one tuition in the dock? The crisis in music schools
Private or public morality? Frobisher Auditorium 2
The law and our private lives: an abusive relationship?
Saturday 19 October: 3.30pm-5.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Do as I say not as I do: what's wrong with hypocrisy?
Institutions in crisis? Cinema 2
From Shipman to Mid Staffs – does doctor still know best?
School Fights Frobisher 1-3
Private education: public harm?
Private or public morality? Frobisher Auditorium 2
Suicide: the ultimate selfish act?
Saturday 19 October: 5.30pm-6.45pm
Battle for our minds Pit Theatre
The new sex education: colonising our children's emotions?
Private or public morality? Frobisher Auditorium 2
Baby on board: the battle over pregnancy
Sunday 20 October: 9.30am-10.15am
Contemporary Controversies Frobisher 1-3
Free riders: cycle helmets and health and safety
Sunday 20 October: 10.30am-12.00pm
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Building trust or cleaning up the public realm?
Hot off the Press 2013 Hammerson Room
Burqa bans – is what we wear a public or private matter?
Sunday 20 October: 12.15pm-1.15pm
Generation Wars Cinema 2
Role models: on your best behaviour?
Sunday 20 October: 1.30pm-3.00pm
Contemporary Controversies Frobisher 1-3
Last orders: calling time on the pub
Hot off the Press 2013 Hammerson Room
Twerk Hard, Play Hard: the pornification of the public realm
Sunday 20 October: 3.30pm-4.45pm
Generation Wars Cinema 2
Facebook generation: growing up in public
Contemporary Controversies Frobisher 1-3
Can you be a perfect parent?

Trust in an age of cynicism

"The rules of the game at The Battle of Ideas makes beating about the bush impossible. When you are given 5 minutes to make your point, you either say something essential, or you reveal that you have nothing really to say. This eliminates 'the unbearable lightness' of speculation that haunts public debate."
Albena Azmanova, social philosopher, political commentator and activist

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