Academy of Ideas

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe FAN TILL I DIE? THE MEANING OF BEING A FOOTBALL SUPPORTER http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5742 A woman sees an old man sitting next to an empty seat at the FA Cup final and asks why he is alone, to which he responds that it’s his dec...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY: WHY DO ATHEISTS LOVE THE KING JAMES BIBLE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5741 2011 is the quadricentenary of the publication of the King James Bible, the most celebrated English language version, commissione...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DOING IT FOR CHARITY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5709 Charities and voluntary organisations have never been more in vogue than they are now. The voluntary and community sector was courted by the previous government, with a desk...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ARE THE GERMANS STILL EUROPEAN? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5803 Germans seem to have lost their enthusiasm for the European project. Chancellor Angela Merkel has notoriously accused southern Europeans of taking too much vacation...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: WHAT ARE PRISONS FOR? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5693 As Conservative Home Secretary in the 1990s, Michael Howard famously rejected concerns about a rising prison population by insisting,‘prison works’. In...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IS BIG BUSINESS RUINING FOOD? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5703 Intensive farming methods and agribusiness are regarded with the same suspicion when it comes to food production as giant supermarket chains when it comes to retail....

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe PERFORMING POLITICS: IS ALL THE WORLD A STAGE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5717 From the travails of the house of Atreus through to Brechtian agitprop, theatre has long had a close association with politics, ideas and power. Oper...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe RADICAL SURGERY FOR THE NHS: WHAT IS A GP'S ROLE TODAY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5711 Proposals in the recent Health Bill to change the role of GPs have been among the most contested of all the coalition’s policies. David Came...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe SKILLING UP THE JILTED GENERATION: THE EMPLOYABILITY DEBATE http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5752 Universities and Science Minister David Willetts has announced the launch of five new Industrial Doctorate Centres to train ‘a new wave...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe INTERNS OR SLAVE LABOUR? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5759 Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg believes we should put an end to the culture of unpaid ‘internships’ that make up many of the entry level positions in politics, the media...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS: CAN WE MEASURE THE VALUE OF THE ARTS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5716 Why do we value art? For Hegel, its value was as an expression of truth, beauty and the sensuousness of the human spirit....

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ARE WE TURNING OUR CHILDREN INTO FOOD FADDISTS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5705 Yasmin refuses to eat her greens, and left to his own devices, Timmy would scoff jam sandwiches three times a day: children are notoriously fussy ea...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DREAMING SPIRES FOR ALL? OXBRIDGE AND SOCIAL MOBILITY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5713 The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are widely considered the best in Britain: an Oxbridge education implies membership of an intellectua...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHO IS THE GREATEST EVER OLYMPIAN? BALLOON DEBATE http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5747 The 2008 Beijing Games were dominated by two outstanding Oympians – Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. Phelps’ haul of 8 gold medals beat Mark Spitz’s...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DEAD CITIES: 'RUIN PORN' AND THE URBAN IMAGINATION http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5758 A couple of years ago, the thinktank Policy Exchange argued controversially that the regeneration funds being pumped into declining Northern Engl...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe REMAKING CITIZENS FOR THE BIG SOCIETY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5707 A central idea in Prime Minister David Cameron’s vision of a ‘Big Society’ is that the state needs to encourage us to change our behaviour so we are less dep...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DRINKING BY NUMBERS: SHOULD WE COUNT OUR ALCOHOL UNITS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5710 The UK government recommends men limit their consumption of alcohol to 3 or 4 units a day, while women keep within 2 or 3 units, a unit bein...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BURLESQUE: FEMALE EMPOWERMENT OR POSH STRIPPING? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5756 From the celebrity raunch of Dita von Teese and Christina Aguilera through to the sudden explosion in themed club nights such as alleged royal favo...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE TEA PARTY: DEFENDERS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5699 Ever since the Tea Party movement burst onto the scene in 2009, the debate has raged on about whether it is a grassroots protest movement in the pro...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: FROM OLYMPIA TO LONDON http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5743 The Olympic Games are known as the greatest show on earth. They provide a two-week spectacle of sport and much more besides. The modern Olympic G...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHAT'S INNOVATION GOOD FOR? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5700 It is almost fifty years since Harold Wilson’s famous ‘white heat’ speech captured the popular imagination with its promise of a scientific and technological ‘revolutio...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe OLYMPIC EXPECTATIONS: CAN'T SEE THE GAMES FOR THE LEGACY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5746 Next summer, the world’s greatest athletes will be performing at the London Olympics. It ought to be a fantastic spectacle. It ought to be...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ABORTION: HOW LATE IS 'TOO LATE'? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5755 International concern about the problem of late abortions was sparked in January when the horrific story emerged of a Philadelphia doctor charged with providing i...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe EATING ETHICS: ARE SOME FOODS MORALLY BAD FOR YOU? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5704 From the growing popularity of farmers’ markets and organic food, to campaigns to stop the building of a ‘super dairy’ or prevent the sale and co...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS: SCI-FI AND THE FUTURE http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2011/session_detail/5714 ‘The dystopian novelist,’ said Martin Amis of Anthony Burgess, ‘is a satirist. He looks around him and makes everything worse’. If science fiction – fro...