Intelligence Squared

Scottish fisherman have barricaded their fishing ports in protest at Iceland and the Faroe Islands' decision to drastically increase their mackerel catch. It feels like the Cod Wars of the 1970s. Iceland has increased its catch from 363 tonnes in 2005 to 130,000 tonnes this year. The Faroese have increased their take from 26,000 tonnes to 85,000. A 20 year-old agreement between Norway, the Faroes and the EU to limit mackerel catch has fallen apart. Norway banned Icelandic and Faroese trawlers from its ports. Scottish fishermen prevented a Faroese boat from landing its catch at Peterhead, and Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, denounced the mackerel grab as “anarchic”. But is Iceland really endangering mackerel stocks? Have the mackerel moved to Icelandic waters, where they are properly Iceland's property? And is the EU really such a good guardian of the ocean's fish stocks? Ian Gatt, fisherman and chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fisherman's Association, argues the case against Iceland

Is the BBC a moribund institution? Rigged competitions, obscene phone calls, allegations of ‘dumbing down’ and huge executive salaries suggest it’s time for change. What has happened to their promise to ‘inform, educate and entertain’? Does Auntie still deserve her licence fee

After the Great Depression the government's of advanced democracies started to systematically collect data on the state of the economy. Since the end of World War Two the economic performance of the government of the day has become a yard stick for success. President Bill Clinton immortalised the general sense that growth was a pre-condition for electoral victory in his now famous campaign slogan "it's the economy stupid" but there is a growing body of work suggesting that we are measuring our government's performance by the wrong standards. Nobel Prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen were appointed by President Nicolas Sarkozy to a commission tasked with recommending a new set of measures for policy evaluation in France. Bhutan measures its nation according to national happiness accounts, not economic ones. This week saw the launch of LSE's mappiness project - a hi-tech attempt to measure the happiness of the UK in real time. The new science of happiness measurement is getting closer to shaping government policy - is this just the sensible replacement of bad measure, gross domestic product, for a better one, gross national happiness? Or is it getting too close to brave new world for comfort? To debate that happiness should not be a matter for government policy are economists Paul Ormerod and Juliet Michealson. Paul Ormerod, arguing that happiness does not play a policy role is best-selling author of many books and papers, including, Why Most Things Fail. He is a founder and director of Volterra Consulting, he has co-authored a pamphlet for the Institute of Economic Affairs called, Happiness, Economics and Public Policy. Juliet Michaelson arguing that happiness does have a role in formulating and prioritising policy, is a research at the Centre for Well-being of the New Economics Foundation (NEF). She has worked on NEF's National Accounts of Well-being and a Happy Planet Index.

As scientists continue to debate the severity of the Deepwater Horizon spill and the likelihood of lasting damage to ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico, questions are being asked about how politicians have responded. Some have accused Barack Obama of wild over-reaction to the spill, and of using it as a vehicle for anti-corporate propaganda. They argue that he was playing to the gallery in order to win back some popularity ahead of the mid-term elections. The finger has also been pointed at green groups who, some say, are deliberately playing up the scale of the spill in order to discourage us from using oil at all. Others argue that it was a huge catastrophe, and that the Gulf of Mexico and the Louisiana coastline have been devastated by the spill, and will continue to be so for years to come.

After the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010, killing eleven oil rig workers, some 200 million gallons of crude oil gushed into the gulf before it was finally capped more than three months later. Many fear that sensitive ecosystems such as mangroves and oyster beds will be ruined forever, and that the spill will cause terrible damage to fish and birds as well as the area’s beaches and its fishing and tourism industries. So, what is the science behind the current situation in the Gulf? Is the damage from the spill likely to be long-lasting and severe? And did BP’s actions make matters worse

Toy Story 3 has been a huge box office hit. It has already grossed almost $400m world wide, and made £40m in its first fortnight on screens in the UK, making it very likely that it will become the biggest grossing animated film ever in Britain. Several reviewers – male as well as female – have admitted to finding themselves weeping at its ending. But some feminists have accused it of being sexist for its low ratio of female toy characters, and for the fact that they display stereotypical feminine behaviour. The comments provoked outrage from many who had enjoyed the film. Do they hold water

Like it or loathe it, we’ve all become well accustomed to the speed camera. The most common type, which came to be known as the Gatso, was invented in 1958 by the Dutch rally driver Maurice Gatsonides for the purpose – ironically enough – of helping him speed up his cornering. Since 1992, when Britain’s first speed cameras were introduced in West London, these distinctive yellow boxes have become a feature on British roads. Their number ballooned under the Labour government, and some motoring organisations estimate that they have grown to 6,500, more than in any other European country. Britain’s 33 million motorists now run the risk of picking up a £60 penalty notice almost every time they drive. But now the Conservative-led coalition, anxious to implement austerity measures, think that by gunning for Gatsos, they have alighted on a popular way to cut spending. Mike Penning, the road safety minister, has announced plans to cut back drastically on central funding. “This is another example of this government delivering on its pledge to end the war on the motorist,” he boasts. The impending cuts have already led Oxfordshire County Council to announce that it will do away with its 72 fixed speed cameras, with Wiltshire and other counties likely to follow suit. Road safety groups have responded to the news with dismay. The debate over speed cameras seems to divide people between right and left. Libertarians and individualists believe that safe driving should be solely a matter of personal responsibility; speed cameras are symbols of the nanny state. For their supporters speed cameras represent the benevolent state in an unambiguous form. And then, at the base of the argument, there are the road safety statistics on fatalities and injuries, which both sides claim support their case

Anti-semitism is in the headlines, after 87-year-old Israeli President Shimon Peres made comments which many people have interpreted as accusing the English of anti-semitism. "Our next big problem is in England,” Peres said in an interview with historian Benny Morris. “There are several million Muslim voters. And for many members of Parliament, that’s the difference between getting elected and not getting elected.” "In England,” he continued, “there has always been something deeply pro-Arab, of course, not among all Englishmen, and anti-Israeli, in the establishment." These comments came after David Cameron compared Gaza to a prison camp while on a visit to Turkey. Though Peres’s spokesman later issued a statement partially retracting his comments, many people do believe that there is a deep-rooted strain of anti-semitism in Britain - and not just in the explicitly racist far right

Two leading Pakistan experts, Professor Shaun Gregory and Dr Farzana Shaikh, debate whether Cameron was right to accuse Pakistan of “looking both ways” on terrorism. Is he merely playing bad cop to Obama’s good cop? And what exactly is Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan? Professor Shaun Gregory, Professor of International Security at Bradford University, and Farzana Sheikh, Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs Asia Programme, debate the motion "Pakistan is guilty of supporting terrorists and David Cameron was right to point it out"

Quick debate between David Punter, Professor of History at the University of Bristol and Stephen Llano, Professor of Rhetoric and Debate and St John's University, New York.

Since the late 1960’s, string theory - which conceives of fundamental particles, such as electrons or quarks, not as point-like objects but rather as minuscule filaments of energy called "strings" - has gained in acceptance among scientists. Initially a marginalised area of study, it has now attracted many of the world's leading quantum physicists. They believe that string theory could provide the answers to some of the biggest remaining questions in physics, revealing what the universe is made of, bringing together the fields of relativity and quantum mechanics, and thereby uniting gravity with the other forces. Now, after three decades of tireless work on the part of more than a thousand brilliant minds, the question has become more insistent: does string theory actually work

Theo Tate and Charles Cumming debate the caliber of John le Carré as a novelist. Tate argues that le Carré’s success is firmly confined to the thriller and crime novel genre. He does praise some of his work, in particular Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and he too deems him a ‘very good writer,’ but he argues that le Carré has failed to cross the boundary into serious fiction. He heavily criticises the limited scope of his story lines and highlights examples of his work which he finds ‘pretty awful,’ The Naïve and Sentimental Lover, for instance. Cummings on the other hand, attacks the pretention of the literati and sees the very notion of genre to be ‘nonsensical.’ He maintains that le Carré is an all-rounder and has produced ‘several masterpieces.’ Tate and Cummings debate the quality of le Carré’s sentences, but, as Cummings points out, they could play that game all day. Cummings praises le Carré’s ability to illuminate the secret political world of the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Yet, Tate dismisses the idea that his writing was any true reflection of the reality of the situation. He criticises the simplicity of his conclusions and suggests that George Smiley was merely a clever counter-piece to Bond – the anti-Bond. Summary of the video as it will appear on the front end

This debate took place at the Hay Festival on the 5th of June 2010. Arguing in favour of the motion are Johann Hari and David Aaronovitch. Arguing against the motion are Helena Kennedy and Phillipe Sands.

Speakers for the motion: Lynn Barber Sunday Times journalist and author of "An Education", a coming-of-age memoir which was made into an Oscar-nominated film last year. Kelvin MacKenzie Media entrepreneur and former editor of The Sun. Speakers against the motion: Professor Germaine Greer Feminist author, academic and broadcaster. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto Professor of Global Environment History at Queen Mary, University of London, and William P. Reynolds Professor of History, University of Notre Dame. Formerly a history master at Charterhouse School. Chair: Dr Anthony Seldon Master of Wellington College.

The debate was recently held in Kiev, Ukraine, discussing the motion a 'free market economy has failed the former Soviet states'. Speakers include: Andriy Shevchenko - member of the Parliament o Ukraine and journalist Katerina Yushenko - Chairman of the Ukraine 3000 Foundation and wife of the Third President of Ukraine, Victor Yushenko David Aaronovitch - British journalist and broadcaster Irina Khakamada - Economist and former Russian Presidential candidate