{"id":14,"date":"2006-10-27T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-27T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=14"},"modified":"2006-10-27T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-27T07:05:00","slug":"the-uneven-battlefield-of-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2006\/10\/the-uneven-battlefield-of-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Uneven Battlefield of Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend (28\/29 Oct) sees journalists and pundits flooding to debates at the Battle of Ideas<\/a> at London\u2019s Royal College of Art. The Times<\/em> is one of the event\u2019s sponsors. Join the debate anyone? The weekend calls itself a freethinking festival and it attracts some serious people to step up on to its many platforms. Steve Hewlett, Michael Mansfield, Mark Easton and Ray Snoddy are among the names billed as lining up to debate \u2018ideas\u2019. The great and the good seem happy to lend the event their support. <\/p>\n

And what self-respecting opinion-former wouldn\u2019t want to take to the platform at something marketed as the Battle of Ideas? <\/p>\n

So who\u2019s behind this media-friendly talkfest? Why the Institute of Ideas<\/a> \u2013 \u201can agenda-setting organisation committed to forging a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint.\u201d What\u2019s not to like? The \u2018Institute\u2019 bit sounds serious and independent, like an academic institute. But the \u2018ideas\u2019 bit, well that sounds engaging and fun!<\/p>\n

But the \u2018Institute\u2019 is not a think-tank like Demos<\/a> (charitable company, accounts published online) or Chatham House<\/a> (charity, ditto). It is not academic. It is not public sector. It is not a charity. Far from being independent, it is dependent on whoever is stumping up the cash. The \u2018Institute\u2019 is in the corporate advocacy business. Nothing wrong with that. Except normally, its polite to tell people. <\/p>\n

The \u2018Institute\u2019 is registered as the Academy of Ideas Ltd, company secretary, Claire Regina Fox<\/a>. It turned over a modest \u00a3227,000 last year. Claire doesn\u2019t seem to like being the company secretary of a small corporate advocacy business so instead she sells herself as director of the \u2018Institute\u2019 of Ideas. <\/p>\n

Claire\u2019s also a media commentator who has moved into the space vacated by Julie Burchill. Her portfolio of opinions ranges from defending Gary Glitter\u2019s right to download child pornography, to cheerleading for tobacco, to condemning healthy eating advice for kids. <\/p>\n

Claire was co-publisher of the discredited LM (Living Marxism) magazine, which imploded when it committed a libel of truly stunning proportions against my former colleagues at ITN. Yes, \u201cfree speech\u201d collided with that knotty old \u201ctelling lies\u201d problem.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> sponsors the Battle of Ideas, but The Times<\/em> doesn\u2019t allow companies who advertise on its comment pages to dictate a free leader column. Advertisers are left in no doubt that they cannot influence the editorial content of the paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cFree speech is allowed!\u201d says the blurb for the Battle of Ideas. But representatives of sponsoring companies and organizations show up as debate panellists throughout the weekend. Presumably they are exercising the ancient \u201cfree speech\u201d right of cold, hard cash? <\/p>\n

And what of the debates themselves? How \u201cfree thinking\u201d are they? Take one on climate change. It is \u2018produced\u2019 by the Future Cities Project<\/a>. The Project website proclaims that \u201cenvironmentalism is driving down social aspirations.\u201d The project\u2019s \u2018director\u2019, Austin Williams, picked the panel, and he\u2019s on it too. The first article on Austin\u2019s reading list to accompany the debate mocks \u201cclimate change doom-mongers.\u201d<\/a> Like the Government\u2019s Chief Scientist, Sir David King<\/a> perhaps? Williams himself adds a sarcastic self-penned piece <\/a>reviewing a conference on renewable energy.<\/p>\n

Another debate purporting to be about children\u2019s TV links to an article smearing campaigners against junk-food advertising, describing them as \u201cTaliban-esque.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a twisted old battlefield, the battle of ideas. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure Fox isn\u2019t part of a weird, cultish conspiracy to feed the opinion factory by twisting and reframing debates. I can\u2019t believe for a second that she flaunts her ultra-conservatism to tout for cash from public affairs departments in big corporations who like what they hear. But as Claire herself admits: \u201cThere is intense suspicion in relation to corporations\u2026This perception needs to be tackled.\u201d And where better than the Battle of Ideas?<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019s \u2018festival\u2019 and her \u2018Institute\u2019 blur many boundaries that would be better clearer. <\/p>\n

You would think an event stage-managed by an attention-hungry contrarian who could suck the publicity from a stone, would be a bit more forthcoming about admitting its agenda. At least pharmaceutical giant Pfizer<\/a>, who are one of the event\u2019s main sponsors, are honest about what they want from stumping up cash, an event that \u201cprompts people to rethink their assumptions.\u201d A good place to start would be with the Battle of Ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend (28\/29 Oct) sees journalists and pundits flooding to debates at the Battle of Ideas at London\u2019s Royal College of Art. The Times is one of the event\u2019s sponsors. Join the debate anyone? The weekend calls itself a freethinking festival and it attracts some serious people to step up on to its many platforms. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[47],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}