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TGD Schools Programme
the great debate schools programme
the great northern debate
the great north debate
ETUDE project
ETUDE
gt northern youth voices
great northern youth voices citizen journalism
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The Great Debate facebook group
Geo-engineering
Geo-engineering: the key to the future
The Great Debate People
Caspar Hewett Caspar Hewett
Mo Lovatt Mo Lovatt
Jon Bryan Jon Bryan
Jackie Scollen Jackie Scollen
Lucy Probert Lucy Probert
Jon Pugh Jon Pugh
HYPODS project
HYPODS citizen journalism project
NECTER / RCE North East
NECTER / RCE North East
Space of Democracy
The Space of Democracy and the Democracy of Space
The Leeds Salon
The Leeds Salon
Videos
The Art of Reason
The Art of Reason, 2019
Hands on or hands off?
Hands on or hands off? EGU 2018
Plan it Earth
Plan it Earth: 
Is there enough resource for all?
EGU 2016
The Thirsty 10 Billion
The Thirsty 10 Billion:
Are we managing?: EGU 2015
ETUDE Videos
WoE Stand up
ETUDE WoE Stand up
WoE Bridge building demo
ETUDE WoE Bridge building demonstration
WoE debate 1
ETUDE WoE debate 1
Is Engineering a Force for Good?
WoE debate 2
ETUDE: WoE debate 2
Who is Responsible for Communicating 
Science and Engineering?
The Fracking Great Debate
ETUDE: The Fracking Great Debate
Part 1 - introduction
ETUDE: The Fracking Great Debate
Part 2 - discussion
Rescuing Our Brownfield Spaces
ETUDE: Rescuing Our Brownfield Spaces Video
More Videos
Geoengineering the climate
Geoengineering the climate:
the way forward?: EGU 2014
Decline and Fool
Decline and Fool Videos
Waking The Dawn
Great North East Youth
HYPODS project videos
Whatever Happened to Equality? interviews
Whatever Happened to Equality? speaker interviews, 
November 2012
Equality vs Difference
Equality vs Difference debate,
November 2012
Equality, Equity and the Dispossessed
Equality, Equity and the Dispossessed, 
November 2012
school debate competition final 2011: nuclear power
The Great Debate schools Competition final 2011:
'Nuclear power is the answer to the world’s energy problems'
great northern youth voices
great northern youth voices videos
Infrastructure Debate
The Great Infrastructure Debate, 
April 2012
Transport Challenges
The Challenges of Sustainable Transport,
March 2012
The Future of Energy
The Future of Energy for the North East,
December 2011
Too Many People?
Too Many People? debate, 
November 2011
Engineering the Future
Engineering the Future debate, 
November 2011
Facing the Future
vox pops
Facing the Future vox pops, 
November 2011
Facing the Future
interviews
Facing the Future speaker interviews, 
November 2011
Visions for the Future of the City
Visions for the Future of the City, 
October 2011
Economic Growth: Bane or Boon? Porritt & Ben-Ami
Economic Growth: Bane or Boon? 
Head to head debate between Daniel Ben-Ami and Jonathon Porritt
Oct 2010
Limits to Growth
Limits to Growth debate with Daniel Ben-Ami, 
Richard Dyer and Phil O'Keefe, August 2010
Food & Water Security
Food & Water Security debate with Tony Allan, 
Jennie Barron, Julia Brown and Ben Campbell,
March 2010
Living in a Changing World
Living in a Changing World, 2010
Getting Real About Energy
Video of Getting Real About Energy at EGU 2010
Don't Shout at the Telly North East 2009
Don't Shout at the Telly North East 2009
Flush it (10 min edit)
10 minute edit of WORLDwrite video Flush it
Darwinism without Darwinitis
Discussion following key note talk by Raymond Tallis on Darwinism without Darwinitis
Human Nature Debate
Rita Carter, Caspar Hewett, Thomas Pink and Kevin Yuill: 
The Great Human Nature Debate
Science & Human Nature
What can science tell us about human nature?
Bruce Charlton, Pauline Hadaway and Igor Aleksander
TGD 10th Anniversary
The Great Debate 10th anniversary
Buy books from Amazon
Amazon.co.uk

Main     History     Projects     More on this site     Videos


The Great Debate


Forthcoming Events


POLITICS in PUBS Newcastle
Britain's trade problem and why it matters
7pm, Tuesday 9th April 2024
Introduction by William Clouston, leader of the Social Democratic Party
The Telegraph
Orchard Street
Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 3NY

The UK now imports vastly more than we export. What are the social and economic consequences and how can we tackle them?


ice north east and The Great Debate present
ice breaking dialogues

The ice breaking dialogues are currently on hold and will resume as soon as possible - watch this space!



Welcome to The Great Debate! The Great Debate is a not-for-profit community organisation dedicated to maintaining a space for public discussion through courses, day schools, debates and workshops for the general public on topics ranging from Darwinism and human nature, to free speech and environmental thought. We are committed to education, discovering knowledge and developing informed opinion through dialogue and research.

The Great Debate is organised by director and chair Caspar Hewett, co-director Mo Lovatt, treasurer, Jon Bryan, and film-maker in residence, Jackie Scollen. Since our formation in 1998 we have organised more than a hundred public debates, over twenty day events, and over twenty courses, seminars and talks, attracting a wide audience drawn from the general public of ages 14 to 80. Our activities have included film-training for young people not in employment, education or training, debate workshops for schools and a programme of events engaging engineers and scientists in conversation with the general public.

The Great Debate website includes listings of events, articles, reviews and useful links to other sites. We hope that you will find our website to be a useful resource.

Join The Great Debate facebook group or
visit The Great Debate facebook page.
Follow us on twitter: @greatdebateuk

Comment on The Great Debate:
"Fun is not usually a word that complements intelligent discussion, but without wishing to devalue the serious nature of the enterprise that's exactly what The Great Debates are. For more than three years I have been going to the debates on all sorts of subjects and never been disappointed. The speakers are always willing to engage with the audience even if what they have to say is a little off the wall. Attendance is usually free, which means all my poor friends can come along as well. The atmosphere is friendly and inclusive, during intervals there is the possibility of free flowing intellectual engagement."
                                                                                                                Abdul Hamed
More comments

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gnyv Citizen Journalism and documentary-making training

Previous Projects

ETUDE: Engineering Transmission Using Deliberative Events

Engineering Transmission Using Deliberative Events

ETUDE was a project funded by Royal Academy of Engineering as part of the Ingenious grant scheme which engaged engineers in dialogue with the general public in order to improve understanding the intersection of technology with human values and behaviour. More ...


great northern youth voices

Big Lottery Funded
In January 2014 we restarted this highly successful citizen journalism programme thanks to a second Awards for All grant. Previously funded by Big Lottery and Dulverton Trust the programme provides documentary-making training and production for young people not in employment, education or training. More ...

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the great northern debate project recognised by United Nations

 recent history

In 2023, The Great Debate celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary and after a long break following the Covid epidemic we were delighted to team up with POLITICS in PUBS to bring a series of 9 discussions held in The Telegraph pub between March and December on topics ranging from the monarchy to nudge policy. We hope to bring many more debates over the coming months.

ice breaking dialogues
Between 2017 and 2020, The Great Debate teamed up with Institution of Civil Engineers to deliver the ice breaking dialogues. This series of seven public debates held at The Mining Institute, Newcastle, was very well attended and well received, covering a wide range of topics including: Devolution; Who should pay for education; HS2; Brexit; and Climate change adaption vs mitigation. While the Covid 19 pandemic put a stop to this series, we hope to resume them in 2024.

The Art of Reason
In September 2018 The Great Debate held its 20th anniversary event "The Art of Reason: Curiosity, Creativity, Mystery" at the Black Swan in Newcastle upon Tyne. Organised in partnership with Bigg Books, North-East Humanists, Newcastle Philosophical Society and Philosophical Society of England, this one day event explored the uniquely human gift of reason and rationality in all its various forms. Speakers included Raymond Tallis, old friend of The Great Debate who discussed his latest book, Logos: The Mystery of How We Make Sense of Things;   Timothy Williamson, Oxford University, author, Doing Philosophy: From Common Curiosity to Logical Reasoning;   Nigel Collins, Newcastle Philosophical SocietyHisham El Edrissi, A-level student, Heaton Manor School;   Edward Gibney, North-East Humanists;   David Large, The Great DebateAmanda McBride, Newcastle Philosophical Society;  and Andrés Saenz De Sicilia, Newcastle University. Click here for Videos.

In April 2018, The Great Debate was back at European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna with 'The Great Debate: Hands on or hands off?', a debate looking at the growing distrust of experts in the public imagination and the implications that has for the role of scientists in policy making and the political sphere.

In February 2017, The Great Debate launched the ice breaking dialogues, a series of public debates organised in association with Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) North East. So far, the series has included debates on devolution, flooding, who should pay for education and HS2. Watch this space for future debates in the series.

In October 2016, The Great Debate's director, Caspar Hewett, spoke on the panel of a debate entitled 'Humanity's Big Challenge: Water Wars' at The Battle of Ideas Festival in London. View the video here.

In April 2016, The Great Debate co-convened a debate at European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna. 'Plan it Earth: Is there enough resource for all?' critically examined the controversies surrounding management of resources and challenged the geosciences community to apply its knowledge to solve problems (Click here for video of the debate). This event followed on from successful debates held at EGU in 2015 and 2015: 'The thirsty 10 billion: Are we managing?' (Click here for video) and 'Geoengineering the climate: the way forward?' (Click here for video).

The Great Debate was delighted to announce that in late 2014 our great northern youth voices project won an outstanding flagship project award from United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS). Special thanks are due to Jackie Scollen for all her hard work, to Charlie Winstanley for his valued contribution to the project, to Mo Lovatt for her role in getting us started on this road and Jon Bryan without whose support The Great Debate simply would not have kept going the last few years.

In 2014, we ran a series of events as part of ETUDE: Engineering Transmission Using Deliberative Events in partnership with Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria Universities and Institution of Civil Engineers. The ETUDE project engaged engineers in dialogue with the general public in order to improve understanding the intersection of technology with human values and behaviour. Building on the success of our 2011/2012 project Sustained Engagement, ETUDE used a variety of formats to develop dialogues between participating engineers and our general audiences with events running throughout 2014. ETUDE was funded by Royal Academy of Engineering under their Ingenious grant scheme. More ...

In 2013 The Great Debate celebrated its fifteenth year of providing a space for public debate in the North East. We had a fitting start to the year with a nod to where it all started with a seven week evening course on The Science of Humanity. This was followed in April with the first of our Great North Festival Debates which ran throughout the year. One highlight of the year was Media, Culture, Voice: Tackling inequality and marginalisation in July with Vinod Pavarala of University of Hyderabad.

We were also pleased to anounce that we won two other grants in our fifteenth year which kept us busy throughout 2013-14:

Economic and Social Research Council supported us for the seventh year running to contribute to their Festival of Social Science in November 2013. Decline and Fool: Changing Ideas in the Twenty Teens looked at the declining influence of ideas that have dominated politics, philosophy and the arts for decades and asked what, if anything, is taking their place. This day of active debate and documentary-making included two panel debates: Environmental retreat, examining how environmentalism has become less central in the popular imagination since the economic downturn; and After the fall?, looking at postmodernism, asking what people think it is, whether it has any relevance to the general population and what we would we like to see replace it. More ... In previous years, The Great Debate's ESRC Festival of Social Science events included Whatever Happened to Equality? (2012), Facing the Future (2011), Getting Real About Climate Change (2010) Don’t Shout at the Telly, Change What's on it! (2009) The “Credit Crunch”: Consequences for UK Households (2009) Developing World Challenges (2008) and The 3rd Workshop on Development, Sustainability and Environment (2007).

Big Lottery Fund's Awards for All scheme is now offering follow-on funding for existing projects, and we were extremely pleased and proud that they awarded us £10,000 to resume great northern youth voices, our venture into documentary-making training for young people not in employment, education or training. In 2011 a £10,000 startup grant from Big Lottery Fund enabled us both to buy the minimum of kit needed to make this aspect of our work sustainable and provided the funds to run a set of pilot workshops. This was followed up by £5000 from Dulverton Trust which enabled us to continue running workshops into 2012. The latest grant allowed us to continue this work throughout 2014. More ...

The Great Debate rolled out a programme of debate workshops for schools throughout the North East in the 2011/12 academic year. This included a series of workshops in schools and a School Debating Competition sponsored by Newcastle University.

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More on    website



I took a punt and went to see 'Gamble'. Did it pay off?
by Jon Bryan, May 2022

Why gambling adverts should not be banned
by Jon Bryan, June 2021

Why I am voting in the UK elections to the European Parliament
by
Jon Bryan, May 2019

Why I Want Out of the European Union
Opinion piece by Caspar Hewett, June 2016

What Has The European Convention on Human Rights Ever Done For Us?
Article by Caspar Hewett, May 2015


Videos from the HYPODS project


Can't Surf, Won't Surf!

Review by Danny Crossley of "Media, Culture, Voice: Tackling inequality and marginalisation", a panel debate held at Northumbria University in July 2013 looking at what roles media and culture can and should play in tackling inequality and enabling the marginalised to speak.


Motion, Midges and the Magician of the North

Review by Danny Crossley of "Water and wind - Can renewables deliver?", a panel debate held at Cragside, June 2013 looking at a variety of ways in which energy can be obtained from water and wind and asking how much of our future energy requirements they can provide.


Whatever Happened to Equality?

Whatever Happened to Equality? was a day of active debate and documentary-making held as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science 2012. The event took a critical look at how the ideal of equality has been eroded in recent times, becoming replaced by notions of equity and the celebration of difference. Participants of our film-making programme for young people filmed the debates and interviewed speakers. View Videos


The Great Debate schools Competition final 2011
Nuclear power is the answer to the world's energy problems

Video of the final of Newcastle University Year of Sustainability School debate event held in November 2011. Recorded by participants of great northern youth voices project. View Video


great northern youth voices videos
great northern youth voices videos

Young people taking part in our 2011/12 film-making programme conduct interviews and reflect on change. Includes interviews from Facing the Future, a day of documentary-making and debate held in November 2011. View Videos


The Great Infrastructure Debate, April 2012
The Great Infrastructure Debate

Proceedings of an event held in April 2012 as part of the Sustained Engagement project. With ICE President, Richard Coackley; Edward Bentley, Northumbria University; Richard Dawson, Newcastle University; Stephanie Henderson, Environment Agency; Laura O'Toole, Jacobs; Tony Quinn, National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec). Read details and view video.


The Challenges of Sustainable Transport, March 2012
The Challenges of Sustainable Transport

Proceedings of an event held in March 2012 as part of the Sustained Engagement project. With Matteo Conti, Northumbria University; Katja Leyendecker, Environment Agency, Newcastle Cycling Campaign; and Adriana Monroy-Olaya, Newcastle University. Read details and view video


Facing the Future vox pops, 
November 2011
Facing the Future

The Great Debate: Facing the Future was a day of active debate and documentary-making held as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science 2011. Participants were encourages to take a critical look at current discussions around population and the limits to social and technical engineering. View videos of: Vox pops with participants / Interviews with speakers / Debates


Visions for the Future of the City, 
October 2011
Visions for the Future of the City

Videos from workshop exploring the question "How do we create a sustainable and resilient city in 2050?" held as part of the Sustained Engagement project at Newcastle University, 22nd October 2011. View Videos


Is There Free Will? Finally an Answer 
by Alfred A. Barrios

What is Sustainable Culture?
Proceedings of a debate held on 20th August 2010
with Jonathan Dawson, Alex Hochuli and Clive Lord

A New Interpretation of Natural Beauty and Sexual Selection 
by Chenguang Lu


Economic Growth: Bane or Boon? 
Head to head debate between Daniel Ben-Ami and Jonathon Porritt
Economic Growth: Bane or Boon?

Head to head debate between Daniel Ben-Ami, author Ferraris for All: In Defence of Economic Progress and Jonathon Porritt, author Globalism and Regionalism, Living within our means, Capitalism as If the World Matters held at Northumbria University, 19th October 2010. View Video

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Limits to Growth debate with Daniel Ben-Ami, 
Richard Dyer and Phil O'Keefe, August 2010
Limits to Growth in the 21st Century

Discussion held as part of The Great Debate Green Phoenix Festival Programme, August 2010 with Daniel Ben-Ami, author Cowardly Capitalism, Ferraris for All: In Defence of Economic Progress; Richard Dyer, Transport and Climate Campaigner, Friends of the Earth; Phil O'Keefe, Professor of Economic Development and Environmental Management, University of Northumbria. View Video


Food & Water Security debate with Tony Allan, 
Jennie Barron, Julia Brown and Ben Campbell
Food and Water Security, March 2010

Debate held as part of Getting Real About Climate Change with Prof Tony Allan, Stockholm Water Prize Laureate 2008, founder of London University's Water Issues Group; Dr Jennie Barron, research fellow in water management at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI); Dr Julia Brown, Portsmouth University; and Dr Ben Campbell, social anthropologist, Durham University. View Video

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September Sky Howd interviews Mike Hamp for Living in a Changing World
Living in a Changing World

Video made by young participants of the documentary-making project Living in a Changing World, funded by Mediabox, 2010. The interviews featured were filmed at The Great Debate: Getting Real About Climate Change workshop held as part of the Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science/Newcastle Science Festival in March 2010. View video.


More videos and articles can be viewed by clicking on these links:
Videos       Articles

You can also join our facebook group, view our videos and hear about our events there.

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The Great Debate is a North East partner of the National Institute of Ideas Debating Matters Competition. Click Here for further details.

Debating Matters Competition Debating Matters Competition

The Leeds Salon

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the great debate (all one word) at live dot co dot uk


Previous contributors to The Great Debate have included Tony Allan; Christopher Badcock; Susan Blackmore; Rita Carter; Tony Durcan, OBE; Frank Furedi; Anthony Giddens; Doug Henderson, MP; Will Hutton; Sir Bernard Ingham; Clive Lord; Kenan Malik; Catherine McKinnell, MP; Chi Onwurah, MP; Jonathon Porritt; Matt Ridley and Raymond Tallis.

Previous events have been organised in association with bodies including Academy of Ideas; Institution of Civil Engineers; European Geosciences Union; Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research; WORLDwrite; The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers; Community Hubs Network; Great North Festival; Star and Shadow cinema; Cheltenham Science Festival; Discovery Museum; Royal Academy of Engineering; Royal College of Art; RSA; NECTER / RCE North East; Durham University; Newcastle University; Northumbria University; Sunderland University; Newcastle Philosophy Society and Centre for Life

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