BBC World Questions comes to London
The BBC World Service is holding a series of public debates with panels of politicians and opinion formers across the world. BBC World Questions - an international series of events created with the British Council - is lead entirely by questions from the audience.
Published: 4 March 2019
The world wants to understand from a British audience and British politicians what has both galvanised and perplexed a country seen as one of world’s most stable democracies
On 6 March BBC World Questions is at the Royal Institution in London to discuss Brexit and Britain’s place in the world.
Britain was split almost down the middle when it voted to leave the European Union, and it is still divided today. In Parliament, there is still no agreement on an alternative to EU membership and the deal that would take Britain out. Across the country, there is anxiety about what the future may hold and division over what to do for the best - friends and family have been divided over the issue.
Would a further referendum help, or create more anger? Should Britain make a clean break with the world’s biggest free-trade block, in order to make its own deals around the world? This is a key moment for the EU as well as for Britain. What does a British audience and panel think Britain and the European Union should do next?
In the first of two editions on Brexit, Jonathan Dimbleby and a panel of leading politicians will debate questions raised by the audience. The following month World Questions will be in Brussels.
In London, the panel will include:
- Rory Stewart, MP: Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, former Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Lara Spirit, Co-President of Our Future Our Choice, a youth group opposed to Britain leaving the European Union
- Isabel Oakeshott, Political Journalist and Author
- Hilary Benn, MP: Chair of the Exiting the European Union, Select Committee
Stephen Titherington, Senior Commissioning Editor, BBC World Service English, says: “World Questions has been to 25 countries around the world, but there is nowhere more timely to bring our flagship debate programme than to London at this key moment for Britain and the EU. The world wants to understand from a British audience and British politicians what has both galvanised and perplexed a country seen as one of world’s most stable democracies.”
Rebecca Walton, British Council EU Region Director said: “Working with the BBC we have taken World Questions to cities around the world, generating a space for an open, independent debate on the issues affecting countries at an important time. It is only right that as the UK prepares to the leave the EU, we are giving that open space to debate the future of the UK. By supporting tonight’s event, and the next edition from Brussels, we are advancing the British Council’s aim of greater connections and understanding among people worldwide.”
BBC World Questions is created in partnership with the British Council and will be recorded for radio broadcast worldwide.
BBC World Questions: London will air on BBC World Service English on Saturday 09 March 1900-2000 GMT, and available online after that at BBC World Service Radio.
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