Five of Britain’s leading thinkers will give their personal views of Brexit in a series of special Radio 4 programmes – and the two women featured are both Newnhamites.
Onora O’Neill, Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve, former Principal of Newnham and an Honorary Fellow, was today (July 11) the first speaker in a series of special editions of Radio 4’s, A Point of View.
The philosopher, pictured, was one of five leading thinkers asked to broadcast their personal views of “Brexit” – what the vote tells us about the country we are, and are likely to become.
Classicist Professor Mary Beard, Newnham alumna and Fellow, will outline her views in the final special edition of the long-running essay programme on Friday, July 15 at 9.45am.
The other leading thinkers to give their analysis of the referendum and the repercussions are historian Peter Hennessy, philosopher Roger Scruton, and political philosopher John Gray.
O’Neill criticised the standard of public debate on both sides of the European Union decision and asks how this democratic deficit can be repaired.
She said: “The disarray that we now witness, and the retractions, revelations and recriminations that spill out on a daily basis, show that large parts of each campaign failed to communicate with the public, did not offer adequate or honest accounts of the alternatives, and did not provide the basic means for voters to judge the real options, the real opportunities or the real risks.”
O’Neill was Principal of Newnham College from 1992 to 2006, during which time she taught in the Faculty of Philosophy; she now holds the title of Honorary Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus at Cambridge.
She has written extensively on political philosophy and ethics, bioethics and international justice, and is highly regarded as a specialist on human rights.
Beard, who has been awarded both the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences and the Bodley Medal so far this year for her ‘extraordinary talent’, holds a chair of classics at the University of Cambridge and is classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement.
She is the author of numerous highly-regarded works on the classical period including the Wolfson award-winning Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town and her latest book SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.
Her television work includes a BBC Two documentary on Pompeii and a BBC mini-series titled Meet the Romans with Mary Beard, and she is a regular media commentator on both the modern and the ancient world.