Longford Lecture

London lectures on prison reform

The Longford Lectures are held annually in November in the circular Assembly Hall of Church House, Westminster, London. They aim to provide a national platform for a serious contribution to questions of social and penal reform.

The Lectures are organised by The Longford Trust which celebrates the achievements and continues the work of Lord Longford. It was established in 2002 by friends and admirers to further the goals he pursued, particularly in the field of social and prison reform.

The Longford Lectures were sponsored originally by The Independent and more recently by the Daily Telegraph.

In addition to the Lectures, the Trust awards The Longford Prize to individuals and organisations who play a prominent role in the field of prison reform.

The broadcaster and journalist Jon Snow chairs the event.

Past Lectures

Full transcripts of all lectures and films of recent lectures available on the Longford Trust website.

Year Speaker Title of the Lecture Chaired by
2002 Cherie Booth QC The Law, the Victims and the Vulnerable Jon Snow
2003 John Sentamu Towards a Global Paradigm of Justice Jon Snow
2004 Desmond Tutu Restorative Justice Jon Snow
2005 Brenda Hale Women in the Criminal Justice System Jon Snow
2006 Clive Stafford Smith Lessons politicians learn from America Jon Snow
2007 Mary McAleese Changing History Jon Snow
2008 Special Debate We Cannot Build Our Way Out of the Prisons' Crisis Jon Snow
2009 Sir Hugh Orde War is easy. Peace is the difficult prize Rachel Billington
2010 Martha Lane Fox Views from a dot.com dinosaur Jon Snow
2011 Jon Snow Crime, Punishment and the Media Shami Chakrabarti
2012 Will Self Drug use in British Prisons Rachel Billington
2013 Bianca Jagger Ending violence against women and girls Jon Snow
2014 Nils Öberg Cracking the Code: how Sweden is closing prisons and reducing the prison population Jon Snow
2015 Michael Palin Collateral damage: The effects of prison sentences on offenders' families Jon Snow
2016 Michael Gove What is Really Criminal About Our Justice System Jon Snow
2017 Ken Loach Charity or Justice? Jon Snow
2018 Longford Scholars Why People Stop Doing Crime Jon Snow
2019 Lord Blair Where Next For Policing and Criminal Justice Jon Snow

See also

References