Monday 23 August 2010

Protestors in Joseph Stiglitz event

Yesterday Joseph Stiglitz delivered a thought-provoking but marvellously accessible event that will be remembered for a variety of reasons. Including one very unexpected one...

Sneaking around the back of the RBS Main Theatre -- our largest venue -- was a group of climate camp protestors; they gatecrashed the event and one young protestor even made it on to stage! Given the Nobel Prize-winning economist's open-minded nature, this was perhaps not the most fitting event for the pro-environment crew to claim as protesting territory, and Stiglitz reacted with magnificent light-heartedness before a combination of prompt security guards and an enthusiastic audience removed the protestors, who were really quite amiable about it!

It was an exciting moment in an exciting event, and one that perturbed neither chair Ruth Wishart nor Joseph Stiglitz himself, who was described by one audience member as “the unflappable”!