THE 2ND ANNUAL DAVID YOUNG MEMORIAL LECTURE AND DINNER. SAVILIAN PAUL LAY ON ‘A CULTURE OF AMBITION AND ENTERPRISE’. CHAIRED BY SAVILIAN MARTIN VANDER WEYER.

A celebration of the life and ideas of Savilian Lord Young of Graffham (1932-2022), politician, business leader and lifelong champion of entrepreneurship.

The political and business achievements of David Young, Lord Young of Graffham, are well-known. Yet the man who brought ‘solutions’ to Margaret Thatcher also had a keen and longstanding interest in the arts, especially opera, and in encouraging those who’d had challenging starts in life achieve their ambitions, especially in private enterprise. David wanted people to have the best they could, and that included culture. Paul Lay will pay tribute to David’s passion for the arts and talk about how we can learn from his example by creating new opportunities to enjoy high culture and fulfil artistic dreams.

Paul Lay is an early modern historian, whose book Providence Lost: the Rise and Fall of Cromwell’s Protectorate (Head of Zeus) was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. He is a fellow of the Universities of St Andrews and Buckingham and a former editor of History Today. He is currently Senior Editor of Engelsberg Ideas. 

Martin Vander Weyer is business editor of The Spectator and the author of The Good, the Bad and the Greedy: Why We’ve Lost Faith in Capitalism (2021), for which David Young wrote the Foreword.  Martin has also had many involvements in the performing arts.