20 Deans Yard, London
SW1P 3PA
http://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/an-anatomy-of-truth/
Not everyone tells the truth. ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.’ ‘This isn’t going to hurt.’ ‘I see no ships, my lord.’ ‘Of course I love you.’ When can we know what to believe? Four out of five of us don’t think politicians tell the truth, according to a recent MORI poll. But is telling the truth always the right or best thing to do? If it isn’t, what happens to trust? If it is, are there different kinds of truth? Do we always want to hear the truth? Do different professions need to have systemically different attitudes to truth-telling? Is there a moral difference between outright lies, falsehoods, deceits, dissimulation and just plain old ‘economy with the actualité’?
Come and explore the joys, limits and liabilities of truthfulness in the company of a politician, a journalist, a scientist and a novelist at ‘An Anatomy of Truth’ at Westminster Abbey.
Speakers
Max Hastings
Former editor of successively The Daily Telegraph and The Evening Standard (between 1986 and 2002), and author of 24 books, mostly on World War II
Jack Straw
Former home secretary (2001 – 2006) who backed the decision to invade Iraq
Robert Winston
Professor Lord Winston is a medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and politician
Chair
Claire Foster-Gilbert
Director of the Westminster Abbey Institute