RSA / Equality and Human Rights Commission Debate - Permission to speak: what right do you have to tell me what to say?

Panel debate to include Trevor Phillips, chair, EHRC, Rod Liddle, former editor, BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ziauddin Sardar, writer and academic and Julia Hobsbawm, London’s first Professor of Public Relations at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts) and a pioneer of so-called ‘integrity PR’ in the UK.

Chair: Matthew Taylor, chief executive, RSA

The recent controversial comments made by Boris Johnson’s political adviser James McGrath, and his subsequent resignation, have brought the issue of language and what it really says about us back into the headlines.

This event will explore our use of language, and what, if anything, we should and shouldn’t say. Is there such a thing as “political correctness” and has it gone too far? What is the role of religious sensitivities?

The debate will seek to explore how we get along as a nation, speak a common language and understand the difference between freedom of expression and deliberate and hurtful insult.

This is the second RSA event co-hosted with the Commission under the Open to Question banner.