This Sunday 21st October join Debating Matters alumni for a free, public debate as part of this years Battle of Ideas festival.

Part of the ‘Hot off the Press’ strand - a series of free, public debates in the Barbican’s Hammerson Room - the debate between three competition alumni, chaired by alumni and London Adminsitrator Ed Noel, will look at the whether boxing has the ability to change young people’s lives. Charities and social enterprises aim to transform young people’s aspirations and disciplines through the sport, on the assumption that, in the words of former Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, it ‘can be a way of disengaging kids from gangs, carrying knives, from low-level crime and high-level antisocial behaviour ... it reaches young people that other sports don’t’. So is there something about boxing that uniquely affects troubled youths, or is it simply that the majority of successful boxers happen to be from working class communities? What, if anything, should be the role of the sport in education? And does the focus on the social implications of boxing detract from the sport itself?

The alumni speakers are: Mike Mills, PhD student and teaching assistant; Rhodri Oliver, North Norfiolk district councillor; and Tom Ogg, pupil barrister and author of Boxing Clever.

Full details can be found on the Battle of Ideas web page for the debate.

This event is free and open to the public, and takes place in the Hammerson room from 5.00pm until 6.15pm.

Half-price Lloyds Scholars Programme Student Champion tickets are still available, for just £27.50, so if you’d like to attend the whole festival book now via the Barbican website!

FURTHER HELP

Find out more about the Battle of Ideas and the Institute of Ideas. If you have any questions about this ticket offer please email Geoff Kidder or call 020 7269 9224.