The political elite says hard-grafting immigrants put Britain's lazy workforce to shame, while their liberal critics would rather not discuss immigration at all because they fear the rise of racial tensions.
Against this background, the British National Party claims it has the support of 'ordinary people'.
What is common to questions of immigration is the absence of the actual public from the discussion.
Rather than immigration being a straight forward economic matter of people's concern about competition for jobs, many fear that their whole way of life will be put under pressure or over-run by alien cultures.
Dolan Cummings will be asking whether such anxieties may be overcome by a democratic and inclusive discussion on the relationship between our society and immigration.
Wednesday, 10th March 2010, Start 7.15pm to 9pm The Open House Pub, Sringfield Road, East Sussex BN1 6BZ (map & directions) Confirm your place by clicking here We ask for a £5 donation after each meeting
Suggested Readings by Brighton Salon Associates
David Goodhart - Did Immigration Transform Britain by accident? BBC News 8th Feb 2010
Brendan O'Niel - Why the Elite Prefers Poles to Proles Spiked Online
Natathalie Rothschild - Immigration Attitudes are not the Problem Spiked Online
Speakers
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 Dolan Cummings is an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Ideas, having been research and editorial director 2001 to 2010. He continues to edit the IoI's online review, Culture Wars, where he also writes about books, films and theatre. Dolan has a particular interest in the role of intellectuals, building on Ideas, Intellectuals and the Public. He edited a collection of essays on this subject for a special issue of the academic journal Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (CRISPP).
Chair
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 Dan Travis is the Director of the Brighton Salon and has written on the problem of a 'self esteem' based approach to sports coaching.
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Privacy is often seen today as a matter of technical innovation and regulation, where privacy is traded within the digital market in the hope of security.
However, our trust of other people and the willingness to take the risk of sharing our digital information with them, as on social networking sites, goes hand-in-hand with a lack of confidence in institutions, both state and commercial, that helps to blur the distinctions between public and private.
This confusion is magnified in an age when our personal activities leave behind a permanent trail of digital fingerprints - a mass of personal information the uses of which we have varying amounts of control.
Dr Norman Lewis will emphasise both the importance of rethinking privacy and its key role in meeting the challenges in our wired world.
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Read more... [Dr Norman Lewis on The End of Privacy? The future of trust in the transparent society]
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Without satire, are comedians forced to the ‘edge’ of taste in order to make an impact?
It seems that the closest we come to political satire is to go through the motions of monotonously and superficially asserting the tired cultural norm of cynicism towards authority.
The demand for a new satire continues to go unsatisfied. Has it's chances of resurrection been irreparably damaged by new laws governing offence and the more insidious cultural unwillingness to upset anyone?
Is the upsurge of participation in stand-up comedy a new opportunity for satire to emerge? Finally, when the content of comedy seems all 'observational' and sketch based, we should ask 'What happened to the joke?"
The panellists will be Tim Black from Spiked-online and Simon Fanshawe, writer, broadcaster, comedian and activist. The discussion will set out to encourage contributions from the audience and it will be chaired by the Brighton Salon’s Sean Bell.
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Read more... [Simon Fanshawe and Tim Black discuss 'Is it possible to be satirical today?' on 20th January 2010]
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'If a child feels an incident is racist - it is'
(model head teacher quoted by Ofsted)
It is estimated that around 250,000 racist incidents have been officially reported by schools since the legal duty to report took effect in 2002. Race relations officials claim this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the hidden reality of racism in Britain - 'institutional' or otherwise.
Are schools awash with racism or is this a fiction produced by a new brand of official anti-racism?
Click here to Read Sean Bell's Review of this Talk
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Read more... [Adrian Hart on the Myth of Racist Kids on Tuesday November 17]
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