Living Freedom at Battle of Ideas festival 2025
Join us in London next weekend at the BEST place to enjoy free, frank and open debate on all the big issues of our times – and make the case for liberty.
Battle of Ideas, the FREE SPEECH festival that takes place this coming weekend – 18 & 19 October in Westminster – is THE opportunity for liberty lovers to discuss the big challenges for freedom today. At a time when university campuses and online discussions can be polarised and censorious, this is the chance for all young people to come along and to listen, think and have your say on many topical, challenging issues of the day.
This year, the festival celebrates its 20th anniversary. With 400 speakers speaking on over 100 panels, this is the space to discuss all the pressing issues of our time, whether in politics, science, the arts, women’s freedom or the culture wars. As my fellow convenor Ella Whelan and I note in Why we need Battle of Ideas festival 2025: ‘It’s a space of solidarity – but it’s not a safe space, free from argument. We welcome everyone who agrees we are grown up enough to disagree, who believes that hearing conflicting ideas is the lifeblood of real democracy and political change.’
Living Freedom will be at the heart of the action having produced debates on a wide range of topics – from the war of the sexes to burqa bans, the tyranny of campus wellbeing to online dating, the rise of snitch culture to downwardly mobile graduates. And many of our supporters and alumni are directly involved. So come along and debate. And don’t forget to come and find our stall at the Ideas Market.
Tickets are still available, with big discounts for students and those under 30 working in STEM fields – just £30 for an entire weekend. You can find all the details and secure your place on the Battle of Ideas tickets page.
See you there!
Alastair Donald
convenor, Living Freedom
LIVING FREEDOM AT BATTLE OF IDEAS 2025
Saturday 18 October, 10:15—11:45
FREE SPEECH IN TRUMP’S AMERICA
Speaking at this year’s Munich Security Conference, the US vice president, JD Vance, declared: ‘Free speech, I fear, is in retreat’, vowing that the Trump Administration would ‘fight to defend it’. Is the Trump Administration fulfilling this promise? Or is it riddled with hypocrisy?
SPEAKERS:
Simon Hankinson, Dr Cheryl Hudson, Dr James Orr, Tom Slater, Nadine Strossen
CHAIR:
Alastair Donald
Saturday 18 October, 12:15—13:30
FACE TIME? THE PROS AND CONS OF BURQA BANS
When Sarah Pochin used her first parliamentary question as a new Reform Party MP to ask about banning the burqa, she reignited a longstanding, smouldering issue. The principle of freedom is at stake – especially women’s freedom – to choose their dress, faith and identity.
SPEAKERS:
Josie Appleton, Faika El-Nagashi, Khadija Khan, Ralph Leonard
CHAIR:
Dr James Panton
Saturday 18 October, 12:15—13:30
LETTERS ON LIBERTY: THE TYRANNY OF CAMPUS WELLBEING
Since 2020, Letters on Liberty has reimagined freedom through bold debate. In The Tyranny of Campus Wellbeing, Felice Basbøll argues that prioritising wellbeing risks censoring disagreement and avoiding life’s hardships – leaving young people ill-equipped for adversity. Has mental-health awareness gone too far?
SPEAKERS:
Felice Basbøll, Dr Jennifer Cunningham, Maeve Halligan, Ed Rennie, Eloise Schultz
CHAIR:
Dr Ruth Mieschbuehler
Sunday 19 October, 10:00—10:45
ONLINE DATING: THE END OF ROMANCE?
Tinder, Grindr, Bumble, Hinge, Feeld – whatever your dating preference, there’s an app for it. Gone are the days of hitting the town in hopes of catching someone’s eyes in a busy bar. Is love just a tap away – or slipping through our fingers?
SPEAKERS:
Elliot Bewick, Ella Dorn, Ralph Leonard
CHAIR:
Beverley Marshall
Sunday 19 October, 11:00—12:30
FROM HARVARD TO SUSSEX: SHOULD THE STATE PUNISH UNIVERSITIES?
Long the epicentre of ‘woke ideology’, the university sector has not been a stranger to censorship over the past couple of years. Are government interventions into universities a necessary measure, or do they risk threatening institutional independence and academic freedom?
SPEAKERS:
Felice Basbøll, Dennis Hayes, John Maier, Prof Jo Phoenix, Prof Abhishek Saha
CHAIR:
Alastair Donald
Sunday 19 October, 12:45—13:30
RIGHT-WING BOYS AND PROGRESSIVE GIRLS: WAR OF THE SEXES?
Has progressive politics, which took a vigilant stance fighting against misogyny and sexual harassment, left young men feeling left behind? And is this trend set to stick or, as recent polling suggests, will Reform gain support from women? With political polarisation looming large, can Gen Z build relationships across the gendered divide? Can young women and men be compatible if they have lost their shared morals and values?
SPEAKERS:
Elliot Bewick, Chloe Combi, Georgina Mumford
CHAIR:
Emma Gilland
Sunday 19 October, 15:45—17:00
SHOULD WE ‘DOGE’ UNIVERSITY RESEARCH?
With the rise of ideologically skewed or frivolous research, some argue that an intellectual rot is dominating some university research fields. Others are more worried about the increasing political oversight and distortion of research by ideology. Has academic research lost public trust by prioritising ideological conformity over intellectual rigour?
SPEAKERS:
Dr Jennie Bristow, Ella Dorn, Dr Pamela Paresky, Edward Skidelsky
CHAIR:
Timandra Harkness
Sunday 19 October, 13:45—15:15
THE RISE OF SNITCH CULTURE
In an era of WhatsApp groups, screenshots and the potential for things to go ‘viral’ breaching someone’s privacy is no longer seen as an immoral act. Social media has broken the trust that some things will be kept private. In a world where people’s intimate lives and thoughts can be shared worldwide at the touch of a button, is it possible to maintain both public and private lives? Can we encourage the young to trust each other if snitch culture is normalised?
SPEAKERS:
Sabrina Esses, Stani Huepfl, Rosie Kay, Fraser Myers, Connie Shaw
CHAIR:
Dr Tiffany Jenkins
Sunday 19 October, 17:15—18:30
EUROPE’S FREE-SPEECH CRISIS: HYPE OR REALITY?
Earlier this year, JD Vance warned that European failings on free speech and democracy are not down to Russia, China or any other external actors but a product of ‘the threat from within’. Have Europeans given up on the idea that bad ideas can be defeated by better ideas, rather than bans? Can Europe rediscover the values of tolerance and free speech as the foundation of a democratic society?
SPEAKERS:
Dr Norman Lewis, John McGuirk, Jacob Mchangama, Dr Lola Salem
CHAIR:
Alastair Donald
Sunday 19 October, 17:15—18:30
ERA OF THE DOWNWARDLY MOBILE GRADUATE?
As graduate students are finding it increasingly difficult to find jobs in an over-saturated market, concern arises at the new political threat of the ‘downwardly mobile graduate’. Burdened by debt, underemployed and politically disillusioned, will this new demographic turn on the parties who sold them the dream?
SPEAKERS:
Poppy Coburn, Tom Collyer, Nick Hillman, Dr Linda Murdoch, Tallulah Sutton
CHAIR:
Toby Marshall