The Leeds Salon is a public discussion forum founded in February 2009. The Salon organises discussions around political, cultural and scientific issues, with the aim of challenging any orthodoxies along the way, defending and developing the legacy of the Enlightenment and, above all, providing a space where free speech can take place. Find out more.
next salon
Saturday 9 May 2026
Christianity and Existential Freedom
Last year, a widely reported study commissioned by the Bible Society claimed there has been a ‘quiet revival’ of Christianity in Britain, with surprising numbers of young people attending church. The report has now been withdrawn because of concerns about its methodology, but it did seem to strike a nerve. While nominal Christianity might still be in decline, there does seem to have been a […]
forthcoming salons
Saturday 6 June 2026
Why Read Plato’s Republic Today?
The first of two salons as part of Leeds Lit Fest 2026. Plato wrote The Republic around 375 BC, making it 2,400 years old. Yet it has continued to reverberate throughout the entire subsequent history of Western philosophy. Any serious philosopher since has had to reference their ideas to the framework Plato originally set down in ancient Greece. The Republic is the best known of Plato’s Socratic dialogues. In […]
Wednesday 10 June 2026
Orwell and Spain: The Birth of a Dystopia
The second of two salons as part of Leeds Lit Fest 2026. This talk will examine the influence of George Orwell’s participation in the Spanish Civil War on his writing and politics, on his many subsequent essays, and in particular, on his two most important works, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Spanish Civil War broke out on 18th July 1936. Orwell arrived on Boxing Day […]
salon & school debating news
Womble Bond Dickinson / Leeds Salon Years 10&11 Debating Competition 2026
The final of the ‘The Womble Bond Dickinson / Leeds Salon Years 10&11 Debating Competition 2026’ took place on Wednesday 1st April at the WBD Leeds offices – the fourth year leading transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (Leeds) has been Headline Partner in the thirteenth year of our annual competition for 14-to-16 year-olds.
The four qualifying rounds winners – Abbey Grange CofE Academy, Carr Manor Community School, Guiseley School and Mount St Mary’s Catholic High – competed over two knock-out debates and final decider.
Carr Manor Community School were declared 2026 Champions for the second time and year running, and Guiseley School were runners-up.
There were also three individual prizes awarded to: ‘Best Individual’ Layla Qahwaji of Guiseley School; ‘Highly Commended Individual’ Bella Middlemiss of Abbey Grange, and ‘Commended Individual’ Zephanial Mellor of Carr Manor.
Prize Sponsors were: Royal Armouries Museum (Leeds); the University of Leeds’ IDEA: The Ethics Centre; Leeds-based UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum UKREiiF; and Debating Matters, whose format we use.
Thank you to our teams of panel and individual judges: John Connor and Razvan Popa of Womble Bond Dickinson; Director General of the Royal Armouries Nat Edwards, Director of Civitas Schools and DM Ambassador Justine Brian; Robbie Arrell and Ruby Hornsby of IDEA: The Ethics Centre; Assistant Director of Research & Pedagogy at Outwood Grange Academies Trust Tarjinder Gill; Assistant Director at HMRC Russell Thomas; creative project consultant Jo Caswell; and the Leeds Salon’s Dan Clayton.
Prize Sponsors
Sixth Form Debating Competition 2025
Tuesday 25th November the Royal Armouries Museum (Leeds) hosted its third, annual sixth form debating competition in partnership with The Leeds Salon, and this year sponsored by the UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Investment Forum – UKREiiF.
The competition was expanded for the second year running to now include eight Yorkshire schools: Abbey Grange CofE Academy, Beckfoot School, Bradford Grammar School, Grammar School at Leeds, Guiseley School, Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College, Pudsey Grammar School and Queen Ethelberga’s School.
The schools were divided into two groups conmpeting in a knock-out format, Group winners Bradford Grammar School and Abbey Grange Academy met in the final debating ‘Trial by jury should be removed in certain cases’. And, after a high quality debate, the judges’ declared Abbey Grange Academy as Royal Armouries Champions 2025.
Read about it in the Yorkshire Evening Post and on the Abbey Grange news page.
There were also three Royal Armouries individual prizes, which went to:
- Best Individual: Ruth Rudman, Abbey Grange.
- Highly Commended: Iris Podesta, Guiseley School.
- Commended Individual: Nathan Powley, Abbey Grange.
And a separate Leeds Salon Individual Prize was awarded to the person who best represented the spirit of Enlightenment inquiry by asking lots of good questions, and this went to Eliza Salmon from Guiseley School.
The competition uses the format and topic guides of Debating Matters.
Sponsored by:
Prize Sponsors:
