Culture Begins Across the Channel:
Colin MacCabe, Distinguished Professor of English and Film at the University of Pittsburgh; Theodore Zeldin, President of the Oxford Muse and Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford; and Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, columnist for The Spectator, spoke for the motion. Will Self, a columnist on the Independent and the lead film critic for the Evening Standard; Howard Jacobson, a distinguished novelist, critic, and broadcaster; and The Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo MP, Conservative MP for Kensington and Chelsea, spoke against the motion.
The debate, held on May 4, 2004, was chaired by Anna Ford, presenter of the BBC One O'Clock News.
Intelligence Squared is London's leading forum for live debate, holding regular debates on the crucial issues of the day and inviting the leading intellectual and political lights on the given subject to participate in them. The format of the debates is modeled on the one employed at the Oxford and Cambridge university Unions: a challenging, sharply defined motion; a team of speakers to propose the motion and a like number to oppose it; and a moderator to keep the speakers and the audience in order and force everyone to stick to the issues. After the main speeches and before summation, contributions are asked from the floor: audience participation is a key feature of the occasion, providing a rare opportunity for the public to voice their opinions and to challenge those of the speakers. A vote is taken before the debate begins and then again at the end so as to give a measure, often a very dramatic one, of the extent to which the audience has been swayed by the oratory and arguments of the speakers in the course of the evening.
