Ninth Whitehall Lecture – “Did Covid Kill the Climate? How Democracies Fail in a Time of Crisis” given by David Runciman, Professor of Politics, University of Cambridge
| Date & Time: | November 26, 2020 6:00 pm | Add to Calendar (.ics) |
| Venue: | Virtual Event |
“If ever we need a strong signal from world leaders, for people like you, that we are going to solve this, then this is now” …“Real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics” – Sir David Attenborough
This Whitehall Lecture comes at a critical time in world affairs with major fires raging across North America and Australia; world-wide flooding; unprecedented melting of ice-caps; a pandemic of global proportions killing over 1 million people and over 33 million cases and both rising. We are experiencing the greatest economic crisis of most of our lifetimes and in the free democratic world of government, an unprecedented crisis of leadership, a growing threat of authoritarianism and failing democracies.
Professor Runciman’s important and timely lecture will be followed by a Panel Discussion moderated by Bronwen Maddox, Director, Institute for Government. Distinguished panellists will be joining from Berlin, Washington, Gothenburg and Cambridge.
Panel members:
- Mark Leonard (Gonville & Caius), Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin;
- Edward Luce, Financial Times US national editor in Washington DC, journalist and writer;
- Dr. Marina Povitkina, Centre for Collective Action research, University of Oslo
- Dr. Ellen Quigley, Adviser to the Chief Financial Officer, University of Cambridge
Professor David Runciman, Professor of Politics at Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Hall is also the author of acclaimed books on Political Power and Democracy. In addition to which he co-hosts a leading influential political blog. We are fortunate in being able to have him deliver this highly controversial lecture at a time just after the most important Presidential Elections in the United States.
We are incorporating some video clips into the event and there will be live break out groups available for each of the speakers at the end of the proceedings. The Whitehall Lectures have attracted over 1,400 attendees with copies of published lectures distributed to nearly 3,000 people and organisations. This is our first ‘virtual’ Lecture due to the pandemic but we have had serious senior financial support and at a time when Societies such as ours need such assistance we do hope you will join, support and benefit from the event.
This Lecture will be greatly anticipated and viewed internationally – as will the Panel Discussion which will follow.
We acknowledge with thanks the generous support from our Main Sponsor Dorrington Plc as well as from Carter Jonas LLP, Old Park Lane Management Limited and Boclips. We are also grateful for support received from members of the Cambridge University Land Society and the Whitehall Group, a forum of CULS.
