Special events
Saturday
INVITATION ONLY: speakers and sponsors reception
Sunday
Breakfast banters
What is poetry for?
Why Red-Green Germany has lost its dynamic
Special debate
The IntelligenceSquared debate: which ideas have mattered most in history?
All weekend
Ghana: equality, not pity
Festival launch
Saturday 29 October, Gulbenkian Gallery
10 - 10.15am
With:
George Brock Saturday Editor, The Times
Aine Duffy head of media relations and marketing, Royal College of Art
James Panton co-director, the Battle of Ideas
Breakfast banters
Sunday 30 October
10 - 10.45am
What is poetry for?
'The most unfailing herald, companion and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is Poetry ... Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.' Percy Bysshe Shelly, ‘A Defence of Poetry’, 1821
'I would like to see poets associated with all sorts of surprising places, everywhere from zoos to football clubs.' Andrew Motion, poet laureate, 2000
'Our self-regarding poetry establishment is completely out of touch with the readership of poetry at grassroots level, and if they aren’t responsive to that audience, they will lose it completely. I don’t often find myself agreeing with AN Wilson but he seems spot on with this remark: "Today’s English poets are huddled behind a stockade composed of the public’s indifference and their own self-importance" (quoted from the Daily Telegraph, 24 January 2005).' Neil Astley, publisher, Bloodaxe Poetry, Stanza lecture 2005
To describe something other than a poem as poetry, whether it is a pop song, a political slogan or a footballer’s feint, is high praise. But who actually reads poems, and why? Is there any more to poetry than what it means to its individual readers? Do efforts to popularise poetry rob it of its essence by emphasising sentimentality or entertainment value at the expense of more formal qualities? Are poets ‘self-regarding’ snobs indifferent to public opinion or are they, in Shelley’s words, the ‘unacknowledged legislators of the world’. What role, if any, should poets and poetry have in public life?
Ben Ramm editor of The Liberal, dedicated to poetry, politics and culture Professor Raymond Tallis Scientist and poet
Chair: Shirley Dent Academy of Ideas
Novo Magazin presents
Why Red-Green Germany has lost its dynamic
In 1998 the Social Democrats took over power in Germany after 16 years in opposition. Together with the Green party and its charismatic leader Joschka Fischer, the SPD and chancellor Gerhard Schroeder were able to mobilize large sections in society for a future oriented programme - at a time when there was little hope for any further progressive impulse by Conservatives or Liberals. With great passion Red-Greens talked about the necessity of major reforms, less bureaucracy and a modernized Germany and went into war against Serbia. The new leaders were keen on copying the successes of “New Labour” – but they failed. The re-elections in 2002 and 2004 were down to bad weather, flooding rivers and national rescue campaigns, or to a halfhearted oppositions to the war in Iraq, and more generally to a lack of any serious opposition parties. In summer 2005 the government finally collapsed. What happened in seven years red-green Germany? Why has the country with three green ministers in leading positions lost its dynamic? Can we expect from now on Italian conditions in the leading European power?
Thomas Deichmann chief editor, Novo
Sabine Reul politics editor, Novo
Chair: Sabine Beppler-Spahl (Novo sub-editor, director of ‘Youth for Education, Berlin (http://www.youthforeducation.de/)
2 - 3.30pm
The Intelligence Squared debate: Which Ideas have mattered most in history?
Four eminent thinkers will argue over which ideas have mattered most in history, and the audience will join in the row and vote for the most influential idea on the table:
AC Grayling professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London
Robin Lovell-Badge head of the division of developmental genetics, MRC National Institute for Medical Research
John Ralston Saul writer on globalisation; author of The Collapse of Globalism: And the Rebirth of Nationalism
Peter Watson author of Ideas: a History from Fire to Freud
Chair: Claire Fox director, Academy of Ideas
All weekend
Ghana: equality, not pity
Throughout the weekend there will be a photographic exhibition in the bookstall space (seminar room 1) by freelance photographer Chris Sharp. All photographs are for sale with proceeds going to WORLDwrite.
Saturday evening
Speakers and sponsors reception
There will be an INVITATION ONLY Battle of Ideas partners, sponsors and speakers wine reception and supper on the evening of Saturday 29th October after the Saturday part of the festival has finished. This will start at approximately 6.30 and go on until 9.30pm. This is not a formal dinner, so feel free to drop in anytime from 6.30pm. The evening will be hosted by cScape and the Academy of Ideas, in association with Arts& Business. This will take place in the Senior Common Room (SRC) of the Royal College of Art, which is home to British art ranging from David Hockney to Henry Moore, and from Lucian Freud to Chris Ofili. Sir George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council and the person heading the government Cox Review in creativity and business, will address attendees alongside Rob Killick, CEO of cScape and Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive, Arts & Business.