Special last-minute ticket offer! Academy 2026 THIS WEEKEND
Ideas Matter's annual residential weekend is a brilliant intellectual retreat – and our Substack subscribers can get 10% off.
The Academy 2026 is almost here. This year, our theme is Hollow Leviathan: The state against the demos.
We’re going to be probing state breakdown, the return of the national interest, the fracturing of society, the sorry state of the military, and the rise of Islamo-Leftism. All of this with brilliant speakers, in a beautiful setting at Wyboston Lakes. It’s a weekend intellectual retreat, and there is still time to get your tickets.
In fact, as we are almost sold out, we are offering a special offer for our last few rooms.
Anyone who buys a weekend ticket can get 10% off with code SUBSTACK
One night, one person
£300£270 - buy hereOne night, two people
£495£445.50 - buy hereTwo nights, one person
£425£382.50 - buy hereTwo nights, two people
£675£607.50 - buy here
See the full programme for the weekend below and read more on the website.
For any questions, or for information on concessions and scholarships, please email geoff@ideasmatter.org.uk
Programme
Friday 21 August
THE BOOKS THE ELITE NO LONGER READ – BUT SHOULD
Nicholas Tate educationalist, commentator and author of Seven Books That Everyone Once Read and No One Now Does (2025) and The Conservative Case for Education. Against the Current (2017)
Saturday 22 August
THE HOLLOW LEVIATHAN
Jacob Reynolds convenor, The Academy; head of policy, MCC Brussels
WHAT IS THE NATIONAL INTEREST?
Frank Furedi executive director, MCC Brussels; author, In Defence of Populism
COMING APART: AUTHORITARIAN STRATEGIES FOR A FRACTURED SOCIETY
Chris Bayliss contributing editor, The Critic
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S ODYSSEY
Maren Thom film critic; senior research fellow, MCC Brussels
OR
AFTER LIBERALISM: TIME TO RETHINK THE STATE?
Michael Murphy head of journalism, Outpost Studios, writer, Telegraph
HOLLOW MILITARIES AND REAL SECURITY
Andrew Fox writer, commentator, former paratrooper; co-host The Brink podcast; author, Andrew Fox Substack
Sunday 23 August
WHAT REMAINS? ART AND MEMORY IN THE POST-CULTURAL STATE
Lola Salem Oriel College, Oxford; author, Artless (Polity, forthcoming); contributor, The Critic, Engelsberg Ideas, Telegraph
ECHOES OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR?
Paul Lay senior editor, Engelsberg Ideas; author, Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell’s Protectorate; co-host, 1666 and All That
OR
MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ’S ANNIHILATION
JJ Charlesworth art critic; editor, ArtReview
THE DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE
Claire Fox director, Academy of Ideas; independent peer, House of Lords; author, I STILL Find That Offensive!
Lisa Mckenzie working-class academic; author, Lockdown Diaries of the Working Class
ISLAMO-LEFTISM AND THE ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY THIRD-WORLDISM
Tim Black associate editor, Spiked
This post is a promotion from our friends at Ideas Matter
 | A guest post by
|