About this Event
Welcome to London's new and exclusive debate society where the style is formal but the passion unbridled, as we delve into the current and philosophical issues of our age.
The motion we will be debating is this: "This House Believes the Erosion of Trust in Institutions Will Lead to Civil War in Britain".
The debate will mainly focus on the UK, but may also cover other countries where relevant. Are we seeing the first signs of a country that is going towards an ever greater breakdown of civil order. If people don't trust democracy to work, what might they try instead?
Ticket price includes a free drinks reception from 6pm onwards.
The Debaters:
Proposition:
Professor David Betz is a Canadian-born war studies scholar, author and academic based in London. He obtained his BA and MA at Carleton University, Ottawa, and completed his PhD at the University of Glasgow in 2002, joining the Department of War Studies at King's College London the same year. He is now Professor of War in the Modern World at King's, where he heads the Insurgency Research Group and has served as Academic Director of the War Studies Online MA. He is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and has advised the Ministry of Defence's Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre and the British Army Land Warfare Centre. His research covers insurgency and counterinsurgency, information warfare and cyberwar, propaganda, civil-military relations, Russia and hybrid warfare, and the history and contemporary practice of fortification.
His latest book, The Guarded Age: Fortification in the Twenty-First Century, argues that rather than dismantling barriers, the modern world is living through an intense period of "wallification" — physical and digital fortification, and pervasive surveillance, becoming defining features of contemporary security and civic life.
He will be Proposing the motion.
Dr Ben Jones is Director of Case Management at the Free Speech Union, where he has spent five years helping members who have been penalised for lawful speech, and is a regular media commentator on free speech issues for the BBC, Sunday Morning Live, LBC, TalkTV, Talk Radio, GB News and Times Radio. He holds degrees in history and politics, and completed his PhD on the experiences of British ex-Muslims. His interest in free speech began during his time as President and Chairman of the University of Exeter Debating Society from 2010 to 2012.
His latest book, Island of Strangers: Diversity, Decline and Free Speech in Crisis, argues that mass migration, the decline of Christianity, and the state's management of multiculturalism have combined to produce a new and more insidious form of censorship in Britain, reaching from official policing into the private sector and everyday life.
He will be Proposing the motion.
Opposition:
Luke Gittos is a criminal defence lawyer, writer and legal commentator. He is a partner at Murray Hughman solicitors in London and Director of the Freedom Law Clinic.
A regular contributor to Spiked, Luke writes and broadcasts on law, politics, civil liberties and freedom of expression. He has become a familiar voice in debates about the relationship between the state, the law and individual liberty, and has represented individuals in high-profile cases involving freedom of speech and the policing of public expression.
He is the author of Why Rape Culture Is a Dangerous Myth (2015), which challenges prevailing assumptions about sexual violence and the criminal justice system, and Human Rights – Illusory Freedom, which examines the relationship between human rights law and individual freedom.
He will be opposing the motion.
Paul Carroll is the co-founder and twice President of Britain’s first and still only Toastmasters debate club, 104 London Debaters.
Originally from New York, Mr Carroll has a background in finance and has been living in London for the past two decades. He takes a keen interest in politics and current affairs and often offers a transatlantic perspective on the topic of the debate.
Active within Toastmasters International, an international public speaking organisation, since 2000, Mr Carroll has won a plethora of speaking awards, including Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), and is a leading debate expert who gives regular workshops and coaching sessions on debating and public speaking.
He will be opposing the motion.
********
Formality and ceremony are central to our debates to engender respect for opponents and audience as well as to provide a framework for true passion.
We aim to meet six times a year for debates on current or philosophical issues.
The name "Agora" comes from the ancient Greek word for the marketplace and town square where debates were held. A debate is an expression of the marketplace of ideas, and as we believe in the free trade of ideas, the name Agora Debate Club perfectly expresses what we are all about.
Our logo has three pillars, each representing one of the basic values the club is based on: Reason, Logic and Free Speech.
Each pillar has two ends, six in all, representing the six gatherings we aim to have per year.
Join us and experience the thrill of rational Enlightenment discourse in the heart of legal London
Event venue & nearby stays
Tea House Theatre, 139 Vauxhall Walk, London, United Kingdom
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.