Battle of Ideas: 20th anniversary
The Battle of Ideas celebrates its twentieth anniversary next weekend (18-19 October).
Founded in 2005 by Claire Fox, director of the Academy of Ideas, the BoI is an annual event that fully lives up to its motto ‘Free Speech Allowed’, albeit in a thoughtful and respectful way.
Ahead of the second BoI in 2006 I was asked to provide a short endorsement and having enjoyed the inaugural event the previous year I didn’t have to think too hard:
The Battle of Ideas is a breath of fresh air. Freedom of speech is actively encouraged, which is hugely liberating. Audience and speakers are refreshingly candid. Apart from speaking their minds, many of them enjoy a drink. Others like to smoke. This is the real world, not the grey, bland, sanitised world our political masters would like us to inhabit.
The following year I wrote:
There is a strong libertarian theme - but the emphasis is on intelligent debate so don't go expecting some sort of mindless political rally.
Over the years the BoI has featured hundreds of debates and thousands of speakers. Initially it took place in a warren of rooms at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington, but as the numbers grew the real battle was fighting your way through the crowds and finding the room where the discussion you wanted to hear was taking place.
The first BoI I spoke at was in 2008 but the subject wasn’t smoking. Instead I was on a panel with Amanda Ursell, an award-winning journalist and nutritionist; Guo Yue, composer and author of Music, Food and Love; and Jeremy Shepherd, operations manager at the BBC Club, and the subject was ‘Are we what we eat?’.
I’m not sure how I ended up on that particular panel, but it went better than expected, given I was out of my comfort zone and more nervous than usual. (I may have mentioned it before, but I don’t enjoy public speaking.)
That weekend however was memorable for another reason because six hours after our lunchtime debate I found myself in an ambulance en route to hospital having been taken ill at the Odeon cinema at Marble Arch where I was watching the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, with family and friends.
You can read the full story here. Suffice to say I had to discharge myself at midnight because the next day Forest was sponsoring the farewell party at Ognisko Polskie (also known as the Polish Hearth Club), in Princes Gate, Kensington, and I couldn’t miss that!
In 2012, having outgrown the Royal College of Art, the Battle of Ideas moved to the Barbican Centre in the City of London before transfering, in 2021, to Church House in Westminster.
Organising an annual event on this scale for 20 years (with just one break, in 2020, for Covid) is an extraordinary achievement, not least because I know how difficult it has been at times to find or replace sponsors. Nevertheless, the BoI appears in good health and there’s always a great buzz in the building as crowds of people move from one meeting to another.
If you haven’t been before, give it a go. Tickets for this year’s event can be purchased here.
Below: How can we deal with problem lifestyles?, 2019
