Living Freedom Summer School begins!
Tonight, around 100 young adults from the UK, Europe and America will gather in London for three days of discussion and debate on how we can renew the case for liberty today.
This evening in the simmering heat of London’s Westminster, the latest edition of Living Freedom Summer School will spark into life. Organised by the educational charity Ideas Matter, this year’s school is the largest ever, bringing together just shy of 100 people, most from around the UK, some from Europe and North America. They will engage in a wide-ranging series of talks, panel debates, seminars and workshops, each designed to delve deeply into the ideas, ideals and challenges related to freedom in the twenty-first century.
There is certainly much to discuss. Ongoing cultural conflicts and the febrile character of contemporary politics mean that barely a day passes without pronouncements, interventions or confrontations that highlight the challenges faced by those of making the case for a free, democratic society.
The headline news this week is the decision by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to trigger a by-election, arguing that ‘the people’ should be the judge of their political representatives - rather than cloistered political and media elites. The snooty refusal of mainstream parties to take part in the election only adds to the sense of a ‘uniparty’ desperate to place opponents in political quarantine and thwart their participation in a full democratic process. How apt then that the summer school kicks off with a lecture on the prospects for the populist insurgency to give people a voice.
This year’s school comes hot on the heels of the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. The earthshaking events of the American founding created a beacon for advancing bold, daring ideas of liberty, equality and the centrality of ‘The People’. Yet 250 years on, this historic moment has generated, at best, muted celebrations – and more often incomprehension or even outright hostility. Re-energising the causes of freedom and free speech has never been more important.
One major challenge is an activist state that now regularly intervenes to ‘control the narrative’. Clearly politicians and allies in the legacy media have social-media platforms in their sights. DCMS minister Lisa Nandy is boycotting Elon Musk’s X, and threatening to compel social-media channels and video-sharing platforms to prioritise ‘trusted’ content creators. Lucy Powell, buddy of our prime-minister-in-waiting, Andy Burnham, is threatening impose legal duties on online platforms during general elections, similar to impartiality rules for broadcasters. The challenge for our summer school participants is to work out the ideas needed to combat new restrictions and how to breathe life back into freedom.
Our sessions will tackle an array of similarly challenging issues. How should we respond to generational divisions and estrangement, and political issues that are routinely framed – and experienced – as cultural conflicts? When freedom is assumed to compete with other priorities and rights – like security, safety and wellbeing - how can we stop it being curbed or traded away? Do we need a US-style First Amendment to secure free speech through legal protections? And with the destructive influence of identity politics running rife, can we still make the case for tolerating speech and behaviour we find abhorrent?
Rather than create our own echo chamber, we think of this summer school as free speech in action. Yes, participants will hear from subject experts and critics. But they are also encouraged to express their own views and join in the debate on every issue. As we know, many on the side of freedom have radically different outlooks and ideas as to how it should be pursued. It is only by critically engaging with ideas that we can start to rise to the challenge of creating the contemporary arguments required to reinvigorate freedom.
WE STILL NEED YOUR SUPPORT FOR SCHOLARSHIPS
Participants are the recipients of Living Freedom scholarships which cover 90 per cent of the £500 cost of each place at the school, thereby ensuring that all participants can be selected on the basis of merit.
We are very grateful to the Ian Mactaggart Fund at Free Speech Union, Edinburgh Enlightenment Network, Alumni for Free Speech, Take Me Home podcast and Moynitrust for their support, and to all those valued individuals who sponsored a scholar.
We are still seeking donations to cover the shortfall. If you can help out, then please visit our Donorbox page: Living Freedom: Support a Scholar 2026
LIVING FREEDOM SUMMER SCHOOL 2026: PROGRAMME
Populism: giving people a voice?
Frank Furedi
Generation Fragile? Growing up in the culture wars
Ellie Lee
The Classics: short talks
Tim Black on Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth,
Oliver Rudland on Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes
Women’s freedom: safety versus liberation
Zoe Strimpel and Ella Whelan
Should social media be banned for under-16s?
Timandra Harkness, Matilda Gosling and Maya Thomas
Academic vices and virtues
Nigel Biggar
Should we scrap the Equality Act?
Anna Loutfi
Controlling the narrative? The politics of truth and misinformation
Jacob Reynolds
Island of strangers: what is a citizen?
Dolan Cummings
Artistic freedom: can art ever be free of politics?
Rosie Kay, Ella Nixon and Maren Thom
Is anti-Zionism really antisemitism?
Mark Birbeck and Sam Rubinstein
The De-Population Bomb: solving the fertility crisis
Emma Gilland and Georgina Kiss-Kozma
Does the UK need a US-style First Amendment act?
Michael Reiners
Should society be intolerant of intolerance?
Chris Bayliss and Ada Akpala, with Sebastian Moore and Jacob Reynolds
‘What the papers say’ workshops
Ada Akpala, Chris Bayliss, Lino Buckingham, Odhran Gallagher, Maeve Halligan, Rob Lyons, Anna McGovern, Georgina Mumford and Jake Weston
THINKING ALOUD: LIVING FREEDOM ALUMNI SEMINARS
Nation, national community, national interest
Phil Mullan
How to programme a debate
Ella Whelan
What is the Judeo-Christian tradition?
Dolan Cummings