About the Leeds Salon
The Leeds Salon is a discussion group founded in early 2009 by Michele Ledda and Paul Thomas, inspired by similar initiatives they had attended and, in particular, their participation in the Institute of Ideas sixth-form debating competition Debating Matters.
The aim of Leeds Salon is to establish a public forum for debate around contemporary political, cultural and scientific issues and, hopefully, challenge any orthodoxies along the way. Writers, academics and experts in their field are invited to present their ideas and to have them debated and held up to scrutiny by the audience. The Salons are lively, informal and open to all - but please let us know you intend to come along, and request to be added to mailing list by completing the contact form.
We are also interested in suggestions for debate and establishing fraternal links and joint events with other debating organisations in West Yorkshire and beyond.
Leeds Salon Organisers
Michele Ledda
Co-founder of
Leeds Salon
Michele qualified as a secondary school English teacher in 2001. He runs two subject-centred Saturday schools for the think tank Civitas.
Michele campaigns for higher standards in education. He has written articles for the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Guardian, Spiked, Culture Wars, Quest, the journal of the Queen's English Society and other publications. He has written the chapter on English teaching for the Corruption of the Curriculum. He is a member of the Institute of Ideas and a judge for the sixth-form Debating Matters competition and spoke at Battle of Ideas 2010.
Paul Thomas
Co-founder of Leeds Salon
Paul has worked as a civil servant in Leeds for over 20 years. He's a graduate of the Open University and is a qualified FE teacher. He is a judge and chair in the Institute of Ideas sixth-form Debating Matters competition. He has recently joined the team of The Leeds Channel, working on programme development for community debates.
Paul writes regularly for the journal Freedom in a Puritan Age and for the Leeds-based magazine Culture Vulture, and has also written for Culture Wars, Spiked, the Independent Blog and the Guardian Leeds Blog. And he has spoken on trade union issues at the Battle of Ideas 2009 and 2010.
Katherine Sansom
Web manager of leedssalon.org.uk
Katherine is the editor of Freedom in a Puritan Age (see her latest article, Relocating to the Man Cave).
She is a playwright and has won a number of prizes, including the BBC Northern Exposure prize, and had a play performed at Bradford Theatre-in-the-Mill and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
She is a graduate of Sheffield Hallam University with a master's degree in creative writing, and works as an online copywriter. She is a director of Bank Street Arts and the business manager of The Poetry Business.
Mark Wanstall
Mark has been a lecturer in Childhood Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University since 2004. He previously studied Film & Photography at the Polytechnic of Central London in the early 1980s, and Geography at Leeds University from the late 1980s to early 90's. He obtained a PhD from Leeds University in 1997.
Mark has recenty written the article Time to Rethink the Child-Centred Society? for Freedom in a Puritan Age, and has also judged in Debating Matters.
Charles Brickdale
Charles has been a secondary school teacher of English and Religious Education.
He has written for the Salisbury Review and for Freedom in a Puritan Age (see his latest article, Should We Stop Teaching the Holocaust in Schools?).
Charles is a judge for the Debating Matters competition. He campaigns for a return to a knowledge-based curriculum in schools and for right-libertarian causes.
Dan Clayton
Dan Clayton is a freelance researcher, writer and cameraman, and a part time bike mechanic. He has worked in IT, in construction and as a handyman in French ski resorts.
He recently helped research and produce the documentary Sylvia Pankhurst: Everything is Possible. He is currently engaged in a documentary project on the future of water. He has a Degree in History. He lives in Otley.
