Thomas Simpson, Alice Sherwood and Marina Purkiss Chaired by Stephen Law

Public policy expert Professor Thomas Simpson, former BBC producer Alice Sherwood and political commentator Marina Purkiss debate the declining reputation of our politicians and ask whether it is corroding our democracy.

Recent polling suggests that 63% believe our politicians are mainly in it for themselves. Only one in 20 think politicians are in it for their country’s best interests. The Tory Party has been immersed in accusations of sleaze and corruption, with huge sums of public money being awarded in contracts to friends and supporters. The Labour leader has broken all ten of the pledges he made to the membership to get himself elected. Could the reputation of our politicians as untrustworthy corrode the foundations of our democracy?

Simpson is associate professor of philosophy and public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a senior research fellow at Wadham College. He works on trust and issues at the intersection of technology and security. Sherwood is senior visiting research fellow at the Policy Institute at King’s College London. She has worked in business, in television documentary production, and as an education and multimedia producer at the BBC. Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture is Sherwood’s first book. Purkiss a political commentator and campaigner. She features on Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show, Good Morning Britain, BBC radio, and Piers Morgan’s Uncensored, and has also written for Fortune Magazine and has her own politically charged (but fun) podcast, The Trawl.

Discussions are chaired by Dr Stephen Law, a philosopher and academic, author of bestselling introductions to philosophy for adults and children, editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal Think, and the festival’s major projects director.