It's the Journalists not the Politicians Who Have Fouled Our Political Culture: An Intelligence Squared Debate

John Lloyd, editor of the FT Magazine, Clive Soley, retired Labour MP, and Dr. Denis MacShane, MP for Rotherham and former Minister for Europe, spoke for the motion.

Robert Fisk Best selling author and journalist, based in Beirut as Middle East Correspondent of The Independent, Lance Price Lance Price worked at 10 Downing Street from 1998 to 2000 where he was a deputy to Alastair Campbell, and Peter Oborne, political editor of The Spectator and a regular commentator on politics for television and radio, spoke against the motion.

The debate, held on October 11, 2005, was chaired by Jonathan Freedland, a columnist for the Guardian who has written extensively on international relations and the dilemmas of intervention.

Intelligence Squared is London's leading forum for live debate, holding regular debates on the crucial issues of the day and inviting the leading intellectual and political lights on the given subject to participate in them. The format of the debates is modeled on the one employed at the Oxford and Cambridge university Unions: a challenging, sharply defined motion; a team of speakers to propose the motion and a like number to oppose it; and a moderator to keep the speakers and the audience in order and force everyone to stick to the issues. After the main speeches and before summation, contributions are asked from the floor: audience participation is a key feature of the occasion, providing a rare opportunity for the public to voice their opinions and to challenge those of the speakers. A vote is taken before the debate begins and then again at the end so as to give a measure, often a very dramatic one, of the extent to which the audience has been swayed by the oratory and arguments of the speakers in the course of the evening.