Tommy Peto and Gigi Gil – © UoB Debating

The team Oxford GP (Gigi Gil, Tommy Peto) was victorious at the Birmingham IV 2018. They won the final motion “TH prefers a world where co-parenting is primarily non-romantic (conducted by consenting partners who have no romantic or sexual relationship, eg. friends)” out of Opening Government against Only here so Luke gets moved up a squad (Luke Dunn, Jamie Johnson) in Opening Opposition, LSE B (Abhinav Reddy Bathula, Keshav Arvind) in Closing Government and 240 nuts cracked, 752 to go (Becky Elkington, Gwylim Taylor) in Closing Opposition. The judge panel consisted of Lucy Murphy (chair), Alex Deam, Conn McCarrick, Nisha Telesford and Daan Spackler.

The novice final was won by the Closing Government Manchester SA (Yusuf Steel, Zara Alam) against Opening Government My longest yeah POI ever (Gabrielle Fullam, Oz Russell), Opening Opposition Warwcaster SG (Stephen Ku, George Duncan) and Closing Opposition Martha is too old and tired to think of a funny team name (Enning Liu, Hershikka Tourani). They debated the motion “TH believes that governments should oppose the formation of education hierarchies (incl. Infoslide)”. It was judged by Craig McDonald as chair as well as Abbie Green, Dean Foley, Eve Colyer and Georgie Friend.

Best speaker of the tournament was Gigi Gil with an average of 83,20 speaker points. Abhinav Reddy Bathula was the best novice speaker averaging 81,00 points.

The CA panel consisted of Nishith Hegde, Razzaq Fazail and Jacklin Kwan. They were supported by Mara Mark as tab officer. The tournament was convened by Shaq Scott-Davis.

Open break:
1. Oxford GP (Tommy Peto, Gigi Gil) – 14 P.
2. 240 nuts cracked, 752 to go (Becky Elkington, Gwylim Taylor) – 12 P.
3. Durham B (Joel Nee, John Karellis) – 11 P.
4. Sheffield DV (Daniel Klein, Vicki Reif-Breitwieser)  – 11 P.
5. Randta Claus Presents: Rudolph Shrugged (Freddie Marshall, Tommy Cave) – 11 P.
6. LSE B (Abhinav Reddy Bathula, Keshav Arvind) – 10 P.
7. Will the Real LSE B please stand up (Leo Yung, Josh Freeman) – 10 P.
8. Only here so Luke gets moved up a squad (Luke Dunn, Jamie Johnson) – 10 P.

Novice break:
1. Warwcaster SG (Stephen Ku, George Duncan) – 9 P.
2. Martha is too old and tired to think of a funny team name (Enning Liu, Hershikka Tourani) – 9 P.
3. My longest yeah POI ever (Gabrielle Fullam, Oz Russell) – 9 P.
4. Manchester SA (Yusuf Steel, Zara Alam) – 8 P.

Judge break (alphabetical order):
Abbie Green, Alex Ansuh, Alex Deam, Arth Mishra, Bethany Garry, Craig McDonald, Conn McCarrick, Daan Spackler, Dan Wood, Dean Foley, Eve Colyer, Georgie Friend, Lucie Slamova, Lucy Murphy, Nisha Telesford

Motions:

R1: TH opposes the ownership of pets

R2: TH regrets the romanticisation of art that is pursued for non-material gain (e.g. glorifying the ‘Starving Artist’)

R3: Infoslide: All UN member states in Africa are part of the African Union (AU). In the status quo, these states have differing levels of monetary integration, ranging from independent currencies to the Common Monetary Area (CMA) where the South African Rand is legal tender in many Southern African states; all the way to the Central African Franc and West African Franc currency unions encompassing multiple nations. The AU plans to introduce a single AU-wide currency by 2023.

THW abandon African Union plans for a single currency

R4: In states with a significant ethnic minority population, TH supports the creation of political parties solely pursuing the interests of an ethnic minority group

R5: TH supports the use of mirroring* in popular culture (eg. music videos, movies, art, literature, etc.)

*Mirroring is the performance or reversal of stereotypically misogynist actions by women, often for feminist purposes: eg. reverse cat-calling.

SF: Infoslide: Increasingly, religious parties in Middle Eastern and North African states have adopted secularism, and instead established non-political religious organisations that perform religious activities formerly conducted by the party. Examples include the growing secularisation of the Enhadda Party in Tunisia and the Saigon Coalition in Iraq. The vast majority of these states have formally established Islam as a state religion.

TH supports the full separation of religious and political activities in Muslim-majority States

NF: Infoslide: For the purposes of this debate, the education hierarchy describes informal and formal prestige given to different academic disciplines and the actions of government to prefer some over others.

For example, people who pursue STEM subjects are considered ‘smarter’ or ‘more employable’ than those who pursue liberal arts subjects and many governments prioritise lucrative state scholarships and research funding for these subjects.

TH believes that governments should oppose the formation of education hierarchies

F: TH prefers a world where co-parenting is primarily non-romantic (conducted by consenting partners who have no romantic or sexual relationship, eg. friends)

jm.