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
Thursday 9 October 2025
Comedy: Are You Having a Laugh?
For our second Battle of Ideas 2025* satellite event we’re discussing the state of contemporary comedy. The old joke has it that analysing comedy is like dissecting a frog: nobody laughs, and the frog dies. Fair enough. But comedy raises all sorts of moral and philosophical issues – particularly today when it seems increasingly polarised along ‘left/right’ or – perhaps more accurately – social justice vs […]
salon & school debating news
Tuesday 25th November the Royal Armouries Museum (Leeds) will host its third annual sixth form debating competition in partnership with The Leeds Salon.
This is an all-day event involving 8 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 will be divided into two groups of four to compete in a knock-out format, with the winners of each group meeting in the final.
Prizes will be awarded to the winning team and runners-up. There will also be three Royal Armouries individual prizes and a Leeds Salon Individual Prize to be won.
Sponsors t.b.a.
Womble Bond Dickinson / Leeds Salon Years 10&11 Debating Competition 2026
The qualifying rounds for the Womble Bond Dickinson / Leeds Salon Years 10&11 Debating Competition 2026 will take place in January and February. This will be the twelfth year of Leeds Salon’s annual competition for 14-to-16-year-olds, and the fourth year in which leading transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (Leeds) have been Headline Partner.
Eight schools will take part over four qualifying rounds, these are: Abbey Grange CofE Academy, Benton Park School, Cardinal Heenan Catholic High, Carr Manor Community School, Guiseley School, Mount St Mary’s Catholic High, Roundhay School and UTC Leeds. The four qualifying round winners will them meet in the final in March at the offices of Womble Bond Dickinson.
Qualifying round details will go live by November.
Womble Bond Dickinson / Leeds Salon Years 10&11 Debating Competition 2025
The final of the ‘The Womble Bond Dickinson / Leeds Salon Years 10&11 Debating Competition 2025’ took place on Wednesday 2nd April at the WBD Leeds offices – the third year leading transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (Leeds) has been Headline Partner in the twelfth year of our annual competition for 14-to-16 year-olds.
The three qualifying rounds winners – Abbey Grange CofE Academy, Carr Manor Community School and Guiseley School – completed over three debates on: ‘Humanity should fear advances in artificial intelligence‘, ‘Western museums should repatriate culture artefacts‘ and ‘Assisted dying should be legalised‘.
Carr Manor Community School were declared 2025 Champions for the first time in only their third final.
There were also three individual prizes awarded to: ‘Best Individual’ Molly Megginson of Carr Manor; ‘Highly Commended Individual’ Eliza Salmon of Guiseley, and ‘Commended Individual’ Felix Whittaker of Carr Manor.
Prize Sponsors for the final were Royal Armouries Museum (Leeds), the University of Leeds’ Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre and UKREiiF – the Leeds-based UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum – who all contributed to the packages of prizes.
Thank you to our teams of panel and individual judges: John Connor, David Cole and Razvan Popa of Womble Bond Dickinson; Director General of the Royal Armouries Nat Edwards, the University of Leeds’ Dr Mark Westgarth and Ruby Hornsby, artist and director of The Firmament Annabel Carington, co-founder of Freedom in the Arts Denise Fahmy, BBC Leeds journalist Julia Bryson, assistant director at HMRC Russell Thomas, NHS Englands’ Paul Butterworth, law student Sasha Watson and Leeds Salon co-founder Michele Ledda.
Prize Sponsors
