Founded in 2015,[1] organisers say its aim is to "bring people together to share new ideas and lived experience that can help shape our understanding of the world.
[3] Previous guests have included former leaders of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn[3] and Ed Miliband,[4] writer Afua Hirsch,[5] feminist author Gloria Steinem,[3] civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti,[3] former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis,[4] author and broadcaster Sathnam Sanghera,[6] environmental journalist George Monbiot,[5] composer Brian Eno[2] and writer Armando Iannucci.
[3] The festival was founded in 2015 in the lead-up to that year's UK general election.
[1] Organisers said the initial aim of the festival was to "engage an increasingly apathetic population with politics".
[7] Sir Michael Marmot said that London's financial power is masking the UK's status as a "poor country"[22]