In a city, already used by Romans to relax from their exhausting attempts to conquer the British isles, an equally relaxing debating tournament was held. The Bath IV 2011 lured teams from cities of the farther vicinity into the almost mediterranean spot near Bristol: Teams from that very Bristol, Cardiff, Oxford, London, Manchester, Mainz and more came to compete against each other. Comfortable pubs and an amazingly warm weather of almost twenty degrees that led every second student of Bath to dress in short trousers and t-shirts were greeting the debaters. Near the university lake with many ducks the Bathonians are very proud of the tournament began on friday and underwent some surprising news:

Since Derek Lande, the designated Chief Adjudictor, had unexpected professional obligations, Kate Brooks from the Bath debating society was promoted Chief Adjudicator. Although she was also organising the tournament, prepared food for all the participants, and hosted the only ESL team from Mainz (Thank you!) she also did a brilliant job in cooking up some intriguing motions:

• Round 1: This house would  allow abortion until the point of birth.
• Round 2: This house would, in hindsight, regrets the creation of the state of Israel.
• Round 3: This house would rather a British society without Muslims.
• Round 4: This house would build nuclear power stations.

In four preliminary rounds with five-minute speaking time four teams proceeded to the finals: Two teams from Oxford, Lincoln’s Inn and Bristol. One team from Oxford won that final from closing proposition to the motion: “This house believes that polygamy is a better social concept for society than monogamy.”

The team certainly deserved the title in arguing that monogamy is a tool to suppress the sexual freedom of women who, as stated, “also like sex”. With that deep learning effect for all participants the tournament was ended in one of the many cozy pubs of Bath – it was definitely worth a visit!

Marcus Ewald / apf