A message from the director of the Institute of Ideas in London:

Dear all,

I hope that you can join us at the Battle of Ideas 2012, an annual festival of ideas, debate and discussion, organised by the Institute of Ideas, which is a must for the intellectually curious and open minded. The event, now in its eighth year, takes a fresh and considered view of key issues confronting contemporary society, and will for the first time, be held at the Barbican in London, one of the world’s leading art centres on the weekend of 20 and 21 October.

This year we are offering a small number of Lloyds Scholars Programme: Student Champion 2012 tickets for full time University students, which are priced at a hugely discounted £27.50 for the whole event, and will allow access to all of the debates taking place over the weekend.

During the festival weekend, over 2,000 delegates will attend over 80 sessions, together with hundreds of insightful and thought provoking speakers from across the globe, who represent a wide range of disciplines and viewpoints. The festival provides a forum for free thinking, debate and discussion: in particular, evaluating to what degree the great ideas of freedom, equality, and solidarity, can still provide a foundation for living together in the 21st century.

Speakers at this year’s event include; David Lammy MP, Ferdinand Mount, Trevor Phillips, Natalie Bennett, Piers Hellawell, Vicky Pryce, Philippe Legrain, John Haldane, Raymond Tallis, Zoe Williams, buy phentermine k25 online Ivan Krastev, Brendan O’Neill, Rob Riemen, Frank Furedi, Mick Hume, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Andrew Keen, Wendy Kaminer, and Mark Walport as well as many others.

Regardless of where your passion lies, there will be something in the festival programme for you, with a range of topics up for discussion; from the arts and culture, to politics, the media post Leveson, science, morality and the law.

This year’s programme includes exciting keynote debates such as; What is wrong with equality?, Capitalism: kill or cure?, The illusion of free will, The 21^st Century case for freedom, and Risk, regulation and red tape. Full programme details can be found here.

These discounted Student tickets for the Battle of Ideas can be purchased online via the Barbican website.

In the run up to the festival weekend, we will also host a number of satellite events around London. Including a lively debate entitled Riots and revolutions: Europe’s young radicals?, which will take place at Foyles, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0EB on Monday 8th October, 6.30pm-8.30pm.

Tickets: £5 for concessionsand can be purchased via our website.

This is one of a number of standalone satellite debates that will be held around the country and internationally throughout October and November; from Leeds, London and Manchester, to Paris, Berlin and New York.

More information about this debate and the satellite programme as a whole can be found here.

If you have any queries please contact Geoff Kidder at geoffkidder@instituteofideas.com.