Putting in a word for democratic vigour

London and Brighton Peter Alexander extends his mini-stepladder and plonks it down on the rain-dampened pavement. He unravels a ball of string and ties homemade placards, laminated in rain-busting plastic, to his stepladder. One warns that the end of world is not only nigh, "it is happening right now."

Alexander has been coming to this corner of London's Hyde Park every Sunday for the past year. A video producer on weekdays and a "revealer of truths" on weekends, he wants to alert people to the fact that "the world is ending as we speak."

"You can see it in the freak weather incidents, the wars in the Middle East, the credit crunch.... And all of this is being orchestrated."

By whom?

"By them." He nods in toward central London.

Anyone overhearing might half-expect to turn and see Matrix-style men in black and shades ready to haul him away in a van with no-number plates. But there is only a smattering of tourists and Londoners, umbrellas at the ready, listening to speeches on everything from Greek democracy to fast food to Armageddon.

Since it was set up in 1872, Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park has been one of the world's best-known forums for public debate - and public displays of intellectual eccentricity.

It's big day is Sunday, and the likes of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and George Orwell have come to listen. Intended as a space for free and open discussion, anyone can turn up and speak on any topic - so long as they don't swear excessively or incite hatred or violence. Police officers stroll through the corner every hour or so, to keep an eye - and an ear - on proceedings.

Now, a new charity - the Speakers' Corner Trust, whose founding patron is Vaclav Havel, the playwright and human rights activist who was the first president of the post-Communist Czech Republic - wants to breathe life back into civil society in Britain by setting up many more corner-style spaces where citizens can engage in face-to-face debate.

"Our aim is to get people exchanging ideas," says Peter Bradley, codirector of the trust.

"Rights are like muscles," he says. "If you do not exercise them, they become weak and flabby. And British people are not exercising their right to free speech. It's the mark of democracy to have active debate - and we want to encourage people to discuss the big issues with each other."

The trust tested a new Speakers' Corner in Nottingham earlier this year. Bradley says it generated "excellent debate about politics, climate change, family life". A space is being paved and landscaped for a permanent Speakers' Corner in Nottingham's historic Market Square. It's set to open for the business of loud and rowdy debate in the autumn.

In recent years, Speakers' Corner has been more zany than serious. Tourists turn up to gawk in wide-eyed amusement at a lineup of eccentric speakers. Can the corner really be a model for re-energising "active debate" about "big issues?"

Bradley insists that the new corners will indeed be different from Hyde Park. "The original corner is our inspiration, but it's not our model," he says.

Face-to-face debate

"In contrast, the new corners, like the one in Nottingham, will be in the heart of city centres. So they will attract people going about their daily business. You can go there during your lunch break, or on your way to work; they will be part of our daily lives."

The original Speakers' Corner still shows the value of "face-to-face debate", he says.

"And in our era of 'virtual debate' - in online forums where many remain anonymous and sometimes become trite and offensive - that is worth celebrating. In face-to-face engagement, you have to account for your views; it can be a humanising, civilising, educating experience."

The grey clouds have parted. One of the most popular speakers of the day - a large, loud man wearing a hat with two red horns sticking out of it - won't give his name, "because I come here to say what I think, not for glory".

What's his take on creating more Corners?

"You know, Speakers' Corner is like a therapeutic institution," he says. "People come here to get validation for their views, or to let off steam. It isn't always pretty, but so what? If it helps people, that's cool."