Mass Debate in Bath

On December 1st, the Bath University Debating Society (BUDS) hosted its annual Inter-varsity competition. A total of 24 teams from around the country participated in the event which took place at the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution (Queen’s Square, Bath).

In the university debating circle, The Bath IV is always held in high esteem as something of a more amusing competition with a lighter tone compared to the more pompous and serious tournaments. This is partly because all the debates throughout the day are “open motions” meaning that it is entirely up to the proposition to decide what the subject of the debate shall be.

After the four initial rounds, the break to the final occured, which saw Exeter’s Jekyll and Bristol’s EJ proposing “This House Believes that Hate is a Force for Good” deciding to interpret the motion into meaning that ‘military intervention against dictatorships is essentially a benefit to humanity’. They faced opposition from Bristol’s FTW and Reading’s Cruel and Unusual, the latter of whom won the day. Charlie Williams began his animated speech with “We are Reading’s Cruel and Unusual. I am the unusual one and she [team-mate Ro Cabral] is the cruel one.”

Inevitably, during the final, a great number of poignant ideas were flying across the table. As soon as Chris Hopkins of Exeter said, “We did cut, we did run, and what a mess we made” Winner Ro Cabral jumped in with “If we give dictators a choice to either let go of power, or to hold on to it, keeping it is always the one they like to do!”

Daniel Feld, Secretary of BUDS and a key judge in the day’s proceedings said after the final that “It was a decidedly close match and a difficult topic to discuss; however, we decided that humour was a vital element. A good debate is always heated but never too dry.”

For each round, six different debates took place simultaneously. A theme that is stressed at the Bath IV is that not all debates are centred on politics or morality, “The very nature of open motions makes for a lively debate.” said Feld. Indeed, when it came to round three, “This House Would Bring Them Home” the various teams chose this to mean a wide range of topics, some arguing that the West must remove troops from Iraq, some tried to legalise prostitution, some tried to abolish boarding schools. One ambitious proposition team attempted to outline plans to legalise necrophilia, at the end of which, one of the judges exclaimed humorously “I have to say, I wish I was dead!”

Some other notable debates included proposals to take away a criminal’s right to remain silent and one planning to legalise bestiality under the banner of “This House Believes in Love”

Sometimes, however, open motions can give the proposition team an unfair advantage, as it is up to them to decide what direction to take. Chris Spencer, head of BUDS explained, “Sometimes you will find that teams have prepared a speech beforehand, hopefully this is not the case today.”

The event was organised by Alex Vakil as BUDS IV Co-ordinator, who was responsible for liaising with the other universities and the logistics of the event. The Chief Adjudicator for the day was Andrew Fitch, Debates and Education officer from the English Speaking Union. BUDS was also fortunate enough to have a large number of representatives from the ESU Bath. Steve Smith, chief co-ordinator of the Bristol IV that took place some weeks ago was also present as a judge.

Despite having argued with each other from 10am to 8pm, the one thing all the debaters could agree on was that Bath University Debating Society has evidently lived up to its outstanding reputation and provided a stimulating and entertaining forum for debate.