Monday, October 23, 2006

Aarovitch - the Inquisitor!

And not just any old inquisitor, but a key inquisitor.

Emulating the best of TV and radio, the Battle of Ideas brings together broadcasters, journalists and columnists to continue their invaluable role as key inquisitors of current affairs. Additionally we challenge panels of pundits to become more than talking heads, and instead interact with the audience and engage with their ideas. The IoI seeks to gather those who want to look behind the headlines and who are no longer prepared to be patronised with simplistic sound bites.

Aaronovitch, David is one of these. Via, of all people David T, who lists other big names: Madeleine Bunting, Conor Gearty, Ted Honderich, and Bernard Crick. (I wouldn't have thought David T would have thought Madeleine Bunting was a big name, still it's five syllables, so bigger than most.)

A quick skim of the names suggests than none are Euston signatories. As advertised above, none are elected (MPs councillors, mayors, that sort of thing).

Actually David T is right about the cultishness. RCP bods seem to chair everything. Sounds like a weekend of fun.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, I think it's the LM crowd running one of their jolly front organisations cum event management groups. I think the "battle of ideas" idea stems from their Euston clone "manifesto group". Got themselves a good haul though.

10/23/2006 12:02:00 PM  
Blogger The Couscous Kid said...

I'm pretty confident that the Manifesto Group is a 2006 initiative, whereas the Battle of Ideas has been an annual event for a short while now.

10/23/2006 02:06:00 PM  
Blogger Benjamin said...

Has the Euston Group sunk without trace yet, or are we still getting a few eddies?

10/24/2006 10:35:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Manifesto appears to be topping out around 2600 signatures; I'm guessing that the "long tail" will take it up to the 3000-odd that Unite Against Terror got, over time.

The Euston Group otoh appears to be in rude health (by the standards of Decent groups), with David Milliband writing dull essays for their website and "Social Democratic Futures" proliferating Decency left right and centre. It appears to have more or less metamorphosed from the thinking man's Henry "Scoop" Jackson Society into the latest vehicle for Alan (not the Minister) Johnson's career.

10/25/2006 06:20:00 AM  
Blogger Alex said...

Hey, this Battle of Ideas lot sent me an invite. Should I have answered it?

10/26/2006 03:35:00 PM  
Blogger AndyB said...

I got an e-mail about this and thought, 'a Furedi do, is it?'

And that was the end of that.

10/26/2006 08:52:00 PM  

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