Great Debates

Our Great Debates series continues Dartington’s long tradition of tackling the important issues of the day.

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Previous Great Debates at Dartington

Great Debate 4: Punishing Crime – is it working?

Friday 14 October 2011, 6.30pm
Dartington Hall

The UK locks up a greater percentage of its population than any developed nation except the USA, yet our reoffending rates remain higher than the rest of Europe. Are Britons worse behaved, is our prison system failing, or are we locking up the wrong people? Experts including Juliet Lyon CBE (Chief Executive of the Prison Reform Trust) and Caspar Walsh (Guardian journalist and Director of Write to Freedom) will debate these issues.

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Renewing Trident – are nuclear weapons right for our times?

Friday 15 July 2011, 1pm
Dartington Hall

Part of Ways With Words 2011

Nuclear fuel is in the news, nuclear weapons less so. Buts should Britain have nuclear arms? Should we renew Trident? Should we intervene in problems around the world? Leading independent thinkers unpack the arguments. With politician and academic Shirley Williams and journalist David Aaronovitch, chaired by Peter Stanford.

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The Alternative Vote — a strong voice for the people?

Friday 8 April 2011
6.30pm Great Hall

How did you vote in the referendum on 5 May? Did you have the information you needed? Will AV eliminate the need for complicated tactical voting or make it more necessary than ever? What kind of system do you think is needed in the 21st century – and is the Alternative Vote the way to get there?

Good information and illuminating, robust debate is rare. This second Great Debate of 2011 helped open up these questions. A panel of four set out the context and explored the options.

Debaters included a senior Conservative ‘yes’ vote MP, a senior Lib Dem ‘no’ vote MP, an ‘alternative view’ politician and an academic who helped make sense of the voting systems here and abroad.

The debate team was:

• Rt Hon Ben Bradshaw MP (Exeter) – leader of Labour’s Vote Yes group
• George Eustice MP (Camborne & Redruth) – SW leader of the NOtoAV campaign
• Pam Giddy, director of the Power2010 campaign for democratic reform
• Tony Whitty, Totnes Town Mayor

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Tagore and his relevance for international environmental and social action today

Tuesday 15 February 2011
6.30pm Great Hall

This debate was combined with a networking dinner to enable further discussion of the topic between the speakers and audience.

Speakers included the author and co-founder of Schumacher College, Satish Kumar; Nobel prize nominee Aruna Roy; and leading climate change activist Malini Mehra. Chaired by Charlie McConnell, Director of Schumacher College.

2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, who was a huge influence for Leonard Elmhirst and the Dartington experiment. This debate launched a year of activities across Dartington’s programmes, including the Tagore Festival in May.