Agora Debate Club London is a unique debate club, resident at the Tea House Theatre. Unlike other debate clubs, Agora Debate Club London does not assign you an opinion, after vigorous argument and impassioned talk, you have to form your own.

Votes will be taken before and after debates, and the side with the greatest swing in its favour, is declared the winner.

We adhere to the Chatham House rules, which means that it is strictly forbidden to name any speaker, whether a debater or anyone else, if you share any statements made during the debates outside of the meeting.

Formality and ceremony are central to our debates to engender respect for opponents and audience as well as to provide a framework for true passion.

We aim to meet six times a year for debates on current or philosophical issues.

The name "Agora" comes from the ancient Greek word for the marketplace and town square where debates were held. A debate is an expression of the marketplace of ideas, and as we believe in the free trade of ideas, the name Agora Debate Club London perfectly expresses what we are all about.

Agora’s logo has three pillars, each representing one of the basic values the club is based on: Reason, Logic and Free Speech.

Each pillar has two ends, six in all, representing the six gatherings we aim to have per year.

Join us and experience the thrill of rational Enlightenment discourse in the heart of legal London.

NEXT EVENT

THIS HOUSE Regrets the Welfare State

Was the Welfare State a big Mistake? w/Dominic Frisby and others.

Join the libertarian satirist, author and actor Dominic Frisby and the founder and director of the Ayn Rand Centre, as they make the case for why the welfare state was a moral and financial mistake. Opposing the motion will be the Liberal Democrat Councillor Rachel Bentley and Agora member Dr David Sexton.

The welfare state, as it emerged from the ruins of World War II, was supposed to do away with poverty, want and unemployment and build a brave new world. After 80 years of growing, has it merely become a bloated and inefficient gargantuan producer of dependency and government overreach? As the country sinks ever deeper into debt and the NHS and welfare budget grows ever impossibly bigger, is it time to be honest and say that the welfare state was a both a financial and moral mistake?

Expect great arguments on either side and plenty of room for YOU to put your opinion across as we ask: should we regret the creation of the welfare state?

We invite you to test the motion, challenge assumptions, and share your views during the Q&A.

The Debaters:

Proposition:

Dominic Frisby is a libertarian author and comedian, perhaps best known by many for his many satirical songs (check them out on YouTube), but he has also written several books, most recently The Secret History of Gold.

He hosted Money Pit with Jason Manford on Dave and appeared on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze to discuss the morality of comedy and has been a prolific voiceover artist since 1993. In 2025 he appeared in Grooming Gangs Cover Up, a 100% verbatim drama based on the judge's sentencing remarks, telling the true story of one of the UK's most infamous Pakistani rape gangs. His satire is strongly influenced by his libertarian philosophy.

He will be proposing the motion.

Razi Ginzberg is the founder and director of the Ayn Rand Centre, an organisation dedicated to promoting Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, in the United Kingdom. He runs a weekly discussion group on the philosophy of Ayn Rand in Central London, and similar groups in towns and cities across the country.

Mr Ginzberg has chaired panels on the topic of free speech in the UK and the US, and regularly organises talks, panels and debates featuring intellectuals from the UK and abroad.

He will be proposing the motion.

Opposition:

Rachel Bentley has been a councillor and Deputy Leader of the Southwark Liberal Democrat Opposition Council Group since May 2022. In 2024 she was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the parliamentary seat of Bermondsey and Old Southwark.

Ms Bentley has spent 16 years living and working overseas, in Japan, the USA and South Africa, advising governments, families, businesses and charities on many matters, including job creation and land use.

She is an experienced campaigner on issues such as safe, affordable and secure housing for all, support for small businesses, period poverty and electoral reform, as well as championing the environment by planting trees, campaigning against pollution in the Thames and tackling the blight of litter and fly-tipping.

She will be opposing the motion.

David Sexton is an experienced debater, a former President of 104 London Debaters and a member of the Agora. He currently works as a management consultant for Biotechnology companies (principally therapy developers) and holds a PhD in Biomedical science from the University of Edinburgh.

Besides his interest in science, Dr Sexton is also active in Amnesty International and is a passionate advocate for the post-war Welfare State, in particular the NHS.

He will be opposing the motion.

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