This year’s Battle of Ideas festival feels more important than ever, offering a vital space for interrogating ideas and getting to grips with a rapidly changing world. The Battle of Ideas is the place to be if you’re open to being part of civilised and passionate debate. Public life depends on constructive dialogue. We need a space where ideas, beliefs and policies can be scrutinised. But at the moment, debate on a wide range of political and cultural issues can be ill-tempered – some would even say ‘toxic’. On some issues, debates seem to have become more ‘tribal’, with different sides closed to other people’s point of view. But, hearteningly, amongst many people there also seems to be growing openness to new ideas and willingness to question orthodoxies. If you’re looking for answers to the big questions thrown up by contemporary politics and culture, you’ll love the Battle of Ideas.