The Wykehamist
Deb: Soc
Debating Society is still going strong in its 159th year. Alex Winnifrith( I, 2020-25) and Victor Sim( I, 2020-25) handed over its leadership positions to Matthew Sneller( Coll:, 2021-), Henry Spoerri( Coll:, 2021-) and Robert Craft( H, 2021-). A new don-in-charge was also appointed— former Collegemen AGMR( OW, 2011-16) replaced the much-loved JOC( Co: Ro, 2022- 25). At the start of any year, DebSoc’ s first goal is to help new debaters settle in. Over the course of the first three weeks, we ran introductory sessions for our beginners, teaching more than 20 of them the basics of speech structuring, point generation and whipping. Alongside this, we have continued to practice our on-the-day preparation debates: once the motion is released, Debaters must prepare a 5-mintue-long speech in 15 minutes without any external aid. Over the course of these last 12 weeks, we have seen a wide variety of motions, topics ranging from foreign policy to suffrage. As ever, many of them have been informed by current affairs, and have led to some rather feisty exchanges. Here are some of them:
This House Believes That during times of economic crisis, the UK Government should suspend all aid commitments.
In the context of the Trump Administration’ s cuts to USAID and Lord Patten’ s strong moral condemnation of this in his recent talk, this was bound to be a spirited affair. The Prime Minister( the first speaker) spoke of the relative importance of providing for the struggling at home rather than abroad, thanks to the lack of funding so many of our services would face during times of crisis. The Leader of the Opposition criticised this stance as detrimental to Britain’ s influence on the global stage— if we wish for others to see us as a defender of the weak, then cutting aid would be counterproductive. He also claimed that money is spent more effectively abroad than at home— £ 1 does much more for an African family than a British one. The Deputy Prime Minister fought back by pointing out the level of corruption present in many countries, and that small pauses in foreign aid during crises would not, in fact, significantly damage their impact— long-term programmes are really what matter. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition then rebutted with the impact of our aid on global stability, and its immediate effect on the lives of many young children dependent on foreign aid for healthcare and vaccinations. After the Members and Whips had made their speeches, the judges determined that the Opening Opposition had made the most convincing argument, with special commendation to Anton Oliver( H, 2021-).
Opening Government— 143 / 160 Opening Opposition— 137 / 160 Closing Government— 134 / 160 Closing Opposition— 139 / 160
The Judge determines the points scored via the quality of speech and rebuttal, and the opinions and votes of the spectators.
This House Would ban essential service workers from striking.
This motion was raised in the context of rail-worker and junior doctor strikes. The PM spoke of the detrimental impact of strikes by essential service workers on others, and argued that any improvement in the lives of strikers is offset by the harm that they cause. The LO, meanwhile, decried the motion as denying the strikers their right to protest. Stating that essential service workers would feel less heard and motivated, this would impair the functioning of our society. The DPM strengthened his colleague’ s case,
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