Conferences
Them and us: enemies and adversaries in politics
Michael Ignatieff, academic, broadcaster and novelist
Part of BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at The Sage Gateshead
Date: 3rd November 2012
Time: 16:15 - 17:15
Venue: The Sage Gateshead
To listen to a recording of this lecture, please visit: www.bbc.co.uk/freethinking
After a high-profile career in the UK, Michael Ignatieff returned to Canada in 2006 to become a politician. He led the Liberal Party, against Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in the 2011 Elections and lost. On the eve of the 2012 US Presidential Elections, he discusses partisanship in politics.
Why is political competition so vicious when party differences are actually so small? Why do politicians treat political opponents as enemies, to be defeated at all costs? Michael Ignatieff explores what needs to be done to restore faith in politics and democratic competition.