Battle of Ideas 2014
Festival weekend overview

The full list of sessions over the weekend. You can also view Saturday or Sunday sessions only.

Saturday 18 October: 9.30-9.50
Festival Attractions 2014 Free Stage
Battle of Ideas 2014 welcome address
Saturday 18 October: 10.00-11.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Why are we afraid to judge?
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Judge rule: is the law taking over politics?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
The robots are coming: friends or foes?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
From Yid Army to Green Brigade: free speech for football fans?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Is demography destiny?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Hunger in the UK: the food banks phenomenon
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
Cotton-wool campus?
Defending Everyday Liberties Free Stage
Busking - the clash between liberty and noise pollution (with performance)
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
The FGM controversy
Saturday 18 October: 12.00-13.15
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Hashtag feminism: radical or banal?
Saturday 18 October: 12.00-13.00
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
‘Cinderella law’: criminalising parental authority?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
Year of coding: programming kids for work?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Computer says no? Vetting, barring and child protection revisited
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Feeding the world: can we engineer away hunger?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Business bashing: should corporates ‘care’?
Eye on the World Cinema 3
In conversation: Israel
Free Stage
Bookshop Barnie with Professor Rana Mitter on China’s War with Japan
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
D'ya get me? Does proper English matter?
Saturday 18 October: 13.10-13.50
Festival Attractions 2014 Free Stage
Classical Music Jam
Saturday 18 October: 13.20-13.40
Special topical sessions Garden Room
Toxic on Twitter: should we clamp down on trolls?
Special topical sessions Conservatory
What should we do about Ebola?
Saturday 18 October: 13.45-15.00
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
After Gaza: the return of anti-Semitism?
Saturday 18 October: 14.00-15.30
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Victims' law: therapeutic justice or moral crusade?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
Forever friends? Negotiating online relationships
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
From betting to minimum pricing: saving the poor from themselves?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Energy futures: how can we keep the lights on?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
From Canary Wharf to China: is the bubble going to burst again?
Special topical sessions Hammerson Room
After the Scottish referendum:
what next for the Union?
Interrogating Megatrends Cinema 2
Cities in the machine age: all systems, no soul?
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
Romantic love: just an illusion?
Creative Conundrums Library
What does literacy mean today?
Saturday 18 October: 16.00-17.15
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Judgement by our peers: is the jury out?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Policing the night-time economy: killing the lads’ night out?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
From bullet trains to driverless cars: where is transport going?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
PIGS can't fly? Surviving austerity
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 2
After the floods: can we tame the weather?
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
The trouble with boys: is masculinity in crisis?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
DRIP by drip: have we given up on privacy?
Eye on the World Hammerson Room
Young Arab Voices: has the Arab Spring made us more polarised?
Creative Conundrums Free Stage
Trust me, I'm a music critic
Saturday 18 October: 17.30-18.45
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Community Treatment Orders: the psychiatric ASBO?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
The gamification of society: time to grow up?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Immigration: who should control our borders?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Multinationals: curse or blessing for the developing world?
Therapy Culture Frobisher 4-6
What is wrong with disciplining children?
Frobisher Auditorium 1
Debating Matters Competition International Final 2014
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
Balloon debate: what's the best poem ever?
Contemporary Controversies Level 1 Balcony
Fighting for freedom – the next 10 years: a working seminar for activists to discuss what next
Saturday 18 October: 18.45-21.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Conservatory
Battle of Ideas 2014 festival drinks reception
Sunday 19 October: 10.00-11.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Should we fear democracy?
Biomedical Battles Pit Theatre
Dose of reality: the ethics and politics of drug development
Me, Me, Me Politics Cinema 2
Who gives a damn about ‘student satisfaction’?
School Fights Frobisher Auditorium 2
Lessons from Asia: what is a world-class education?
Creative Conundrums Conservatory
What is connoisseurship?
Eye on the World Garden Room
America: the twilight years?
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 3
Do films warp minds?
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
From Amazon to ebooks: are libraries outdated?
Sunday 19 October: 11.00-15.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Art Space C
Free Speech Read-a-thon
Sunday 19 October: 12.00-13.15
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Our morals, their moralism?
Sunday 19 October: 12.00-13.00
Biomedical Battles Pit Theatre
What do animals know?
Me, Me, Me Politics Cinema 2
Me, my selfie & I: narcissism or empowerment?
School Fights Frobisher Auditorium 2
Data overload: what is the point of exams?
Creative Conundrums Conservatory
Artistic freedom and political activism: to boycott or not to boycott?
Eye on the World Garden Room
Do they mean us? International views on Britain
Cinema 3
Why is Ayn Rand so popular today?
Special topical sessions Hammerson Room
ISIS: damned if we do, damned if we don’t?
Sunday 19 October: 13.10-13.50
Special topical sessions Free Stage
Votes for prisoners: essential for democracy or human rights gone mad?
Sunday 19 October: 13.20-13.40
Special topical sessions Conservatory
Shale gas: fracking hell or the future of energy?
Sunday 19 October: 13.10-13.40
Festival Attractions 2014 Hammerson Room
Learn Latin in 30 minutes
Sunday 19 October: 14.00-15.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Growth is good: mission or mania?
Biomedical Battles Pit Theatre
The science of public health: where’s the evidence?
Me, Me, Me Politics Cinema 2
Are we all vulnerable now?
School Fights Frobisher Auditorium 2
Keeping the faith schools?
Creative Conundrums Conservatory
Are museums turning into playgrounds?
Eye on the World Garden Room
Ukraine: Cold War rebooted?
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
What makes a great sporting leader?
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 3
To boldly go: what is the point of space exploration?
Contemporary Controversies Free Stage
Election 2015: what next?
Sunday 19 October: 16.00-17.15
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Big Data: big danger?
Biomedical Battles Pit Theatre
Belgium’s ‘right to die’ for children: a slippery slope?
Me, Me, Me Politics Cinema 2
Hell is other people? Modern misanthropy
School Fights Frobisher Auditorium 2
Evidence-based education: marks out of 10?
Creative Conundrums Conservatory
What is good architecture?
Eye on the World Garden Room
Whose borders are they anyway? The nation state unravelling
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 3
Shopping and fretting: the ethics of buying the right thing
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
Kindergarten culture: why does government treat us like children?
Sunday 19 October: 17.30-18.45
Festival Attractions Milton Court
The next 10 years: why philosophy matters now more than ever
Sunday 19 October: 18.45-20.30
Festival Attractions 2014 Milton Court Level -2 Bar
2014 Tenth Birthday End of Festival Drinks
Saturday 18 October: 10.30-18.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Level G
Festival Bookshop 2014
Saturday 18 October: 17.30-19.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Advanced Box Office, Level G
Special Barbican architecture tour

From betting to minimum pricing: saving the poor from themselves?

"Some of the freest speech I have enjoyed in years."
Baroness Ruth Deech QC, crossbench peer; chairman, Bar Standards Board

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