Winners of the Liverpool IV – Owen Mooney (left), Skye Brettell (right) – © Bethany Garry

Congratulations to GUU Bush (Owen Mooney and Skye Bretell, Glasgow) for winning the Open Final of the Liverpool IV 2017. They won the final from Closing Government defeating The unwarranted irrigation extension (Michael Davidson and Cameron Cross, Edinburgh) in Opening Government, Never Speak At Your Own Competition (Jack Stanley, Strathclyde, and Patrick Collins-Price, Liverpool) in Opening Opposition, and I came here for Lucy Murphy because I love her. That is all (Dafe Orugbo and Daire O’boyle, Maynooth) in Closing Opposition on the motion “This House would describe Alexander the Great as gay in history books.”

The final was judged by Daniel Klein in the chair and Tommy Cave, Lucy Murphy, Lucía Arce, and Connor Galbraith on the panel.

Winners of the Liverpool IV Pro-Am Final – Alicja Filbier (left) and Areeb Sherwani (right) – © Alicja Filbier

Further congratulations go to Sheffield AA (Areeb Sherwani and Alicja Filbier for winning the Pro-Am Final. They won the Pro-Am Final from Closing Government defeating Dream Team (Edward Frederick Wolfgang Park-Poulson and Stanley Phillipson Brown, Hull) in Opening Government, We Lost the other 5 (David Macdonald and Suzanne Elliot, Glasgow) in Opening Opposition, and Sir, I have a cunning Counterprop (David Bender and Ed Towers, Hull) from Closing Opposition on the motion “This House believes that the most important consideration when awarding scientific Nobel Prizes should always be its practical contribution to society.”

The Pro-Am Final was judged by Clare Robinson (chair), David Larke, Anna Kettle, Abbie Green and Tinaye Mapako.

Aside from breaking first and winning the tournament, Owen Mooney was also the Top  Speaker of the tournament with an average of 83 points. Top Novice Speaker was Skye Brettell with an average of 79.5 points.

The Break:

Open:

1. GUU Bush (Owen Mooney, Skye Bretell) – 11 points
2. Shaky Jake and the Bin Room Bandits (Matthew Creese, Jake Armes, BPP) – 10 points
3. Edinburgh Yes, you’re in a bin room (Mark Wilson, Holly Barsham) – 9 points
4. Liverpool – Where the Sun newspaper don’t shine (Dean Foley, Manchester, Peter Kumar, Middle Temple) – 9 points
5. Never Speak At Your Own Competitions (Jack Stanley, Patrick Collins-Price) – 8 points
6. The unwarranted irrigation extension (Michael Davidson, Cameron Cross) – 8 points
7. Lancaster Let’s Get Physical (Matthew Oldham, Peter Baxter) – 8 points
8. I came here for Lucy Murphy because I love her. That is all (Dafe Orugbo, Daire O’boyle) – 8 points

Pro-Am Break:

1. Sheffield AA (Areeb Sherwani, Alicja Filbier) – 8 points
2. Dream Team (Edward Frederick Wolfgang Park-Poulson, Stanley Phillipson Brown, Hull) – 7 points
3. We Lost the other 5 (David Macdonald, Suzanne Elliot, Glasgow) – 6 points
4. Sir, I have a cunning Counterprop (David Bender, Ed Towers, Hull) – 6 points

Judge Break:

Dan Klein, Tommy Cave, Rayne Goddard, Abbie Green, Anna Kettle, Maazin Buhari, Nathan Chalk, Connor Galbraith, Clare Robinson, Wesley Garner, John Fairclough, Catrin Richards, Robyn Lawrence, David Larke, Petrus Söderström, Gareth Gartside, Tinaye Mapako, and the CA team.

The CA team for the competition consisted of Lucy Murphy, Lucía Arce, and Bethany Garry while the competition was organised by the Liverpool Debating Society led by Charmaine Nadarajah. The Tournament took place on March 11th.

The Motions: 

Rd 1: Info text: Bahasa Indonesia is the official national language of Indonesia, but over 300 local languages are widely spoken. Bahasa Indonesia (and only Bahasa Indonesia) is the compulsorily language of educational instruction at all levels of education. While it is used widely for communication, over 80% of the population speaks other languages as their mother tongue. 8/10 students entering primary school will be taught in a language which they are not most – or not at all – familiar with. About two hours a week are devoted to ‘local studies’.  

This House would make local languages the primary language of instruction in schools.    

Rd 2: This House would abolish 24hour news media channels.

Rd 3: Info Text: Celtic and Rangers are two football teams in the city of Glasgow. Celtic is associated with Glasgow’s Catholic community and Rangers with its Protestant community. Clashes between teams and their supporters are heavily sectarian in nature, with games being a significant flashpoint of sectarian conflict, and are a contributing cause to the city’s reputation for violence.

This House would integrate Celtic and Rangers into a single team.

Rd 4: This House would keep oil prices artificially high.

Semi-Final: Info Text: A “border poll” is a referendum in Northern Ireland on whether the nation should remain in the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland. A border poll has been held once before in 1973, voting in favour of remaining in the UK. A majority (56.2%) of Northern Irish citizens support the holding of another border poll.   

This house believes the Northern Irish assembly should hold a border poll.

Pro-Am Final: This House believes that the most important consideration when awarding scientific Nobel Prizes should always be its practical contribution to society.

Final: Info Text: Alexander the Great was a king and military commander in the 4th Century BCE. Considered the most effective military leader of all time, he had conquered the largest empire of the ancient world by the age of 30. There is historical evidence he was both romantically and sexually involved with men throughout his adolescence and adulthood. He was married twice, to two different women, and had at least six children. Ancient Greek society had no concept of a homosexual identity.   

This House would describe Alexander the Great as gay in history books.      

hh./cmc./jm.