“There’s no money in Debateland!“ – pieces of wisdom abound in genuine debateland as they do in our beautiful ZEIT DEBATTEN country. I knew that from the very beginning of my British debating career when I started to attend the Leeds Debatin Union. And of course I appreciate the refreshing pint after a fervid debate. As an Erasmus student at University of Leeds I began exploring the British debating circuit a few weeks ago. Bad news first: There is no OPD (open parliamentary debate, a format developed in Tübingen, Germany) on this island! No kontaktfähigkeit (interpersonal skills), no sprachkraft (expressiveness), no auftreten (demeanour), all of which are categories in judging an OPD debate. The bitter truth is called BPS, British Parliamentary Style, “always explain why!” is the slogan. But after I took part in last weekend’s Novice IV 2010 at York, my doubts diminished about how I would ever survive a whole year of debating without my third team mate, excellent interjections and great gesture – I must admit: Even BP got style!

Simon Scheller (left) and his team mate in York. (Foto: John Taylor)

Well then, there I was on a Saturday morning, exhausted from getting up too early to travel to York, unnerved from a tab master’s problems and from an excessive introduction into the rules of BP by an eloquent loquacious adjudicator. Now, in front of me, there was a chair and three wings that I had to talk to. To my right, the house demanded to ban gambling. To my left, the freedom fighters from the oppositional fractions and my Belgian team mate: “… that we are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And whether I like to play poker in a pub or just want to have a refreshing pint there, I should be free to do so.“

Bill of Rights and a pint seems to be convincing to any judge and so we found ourselves in the top room of round two. The motion read: ”This house would give scholarships only to students of strategically important subjects“.

Our “state as investor” extension made as second of this room now. After lunch, we had to master a debate on international relations, a classic on “out of Afghanistan”, where we succeed by recurring to the Human Rights Charta. Good chance to break the final for our team Leeds C. Before we had to the last round, we get the chance to talk to experienced British debaters and get vital advice from them: As a German I better never make any Nazi reference, that is limited to The Sun only. Judges are the same as they are back in Germany: the know nothing. I better start with why democracy is good. Interesting, I thought… And another piece of wisdom: The great competitions are mostly won by… Oxbridge!

When I told them about OPD, they were all very interested in trying that. I have got a mission now, to carry the message of the Free Speaker, a characteristic of OPD, across the Channel. But still, another round of BPS: ”This house would invite everybody who wants to work in the UK to come here and feel free to do so.”

A good debate and an even better debriefing out on the aisle later, we unfortunately did not break into the final – nine more speaker points would have been necessary. The final motion reads: “This house believes that religion is a force for good in the world“, teams from Durham and the London School of Economics now face each other. Bummer, I thought, some phrases of blasphemy would have made my day.

But what I really learned: Debating always is fun, albeit two teams or four, albeit point of information or zwischenfrage (interposed question). Timeliness will never be part of a British debating tournament and not breaking into finals, well, it is always the judges who are blamed for it. With regard to team names, the British could use some tuition from Germany to ban the predominant A, B and C teams. But there is hope: “Warwick 11 billion in welfare“ and ”Birmingham heading to the social”.

The last question: Are British debaters any different from us ZEIT DEBATTEN debaters? Godlike chief adjudicators and narcissistic speaker-philosophers induce a clear no! There’s always someone who knows it all. So I myself feel in good hands in “genuine debateland“.

Simon Scheller / apf

This year’s Novice IV at York was inspired by the Novice competition in Nottingham in 2009. Now, this is supposed to become an annual tournament staged by alternating hosts, all of which are members of the Northern Midlands Debating Alliance. This year’s Novice IV attracted 56 teams from universities such as Leeds, Durham, Aberystwyth or Nottingham. A novice is a university student of any year who has never competed at a university level debating competition and who has never been selected for a world schools team in any country. More experienced debaters are welcome as judges.

Simon Scheller started studying at the University of Leeds this semester. He isan exchange student with the European programme ERASMUS. Usually, he studies at Bayreuth University, where he majors in Philosophy & Economics. From the very beginning of his university career, he is a member of Debattierclub Bayreuth and took part in many ZEIT DEBATTEN competitions.