GUU Parliamentary Invite‏

As I'm sure many of you know, IVs are but a mere hobby for debaters of the Grand Old Union. GUU debating is really all about Parliamentaries. And, as we spend so much of our time explaining to you what they are, and how much fun they are, we stopped for a minute and realised we are being selfish. You should all get to join in the fun... but just for one night.

We invite you to enter a strange new world where the only Economist we care about is Mr Callum MacMaster, where facts are mainly ignored, and where marks for style include how well you can iron a shirt.

On Friday 16th March, we are holding the final Parliamentary of the 2011-12 season, where the Whig Club shall be in government, lead by the Hon. Property Ladder, known to many of you as Mr John McKee.

There are five clubs in the Chamber - and each has one space for a guest to speak in a round during the Evening Session. Beyond that, every Club is opening membership to any guest who wishes to join for the day to sit on the benches and ask POIs to the other Clubs. If you would like to speak, selection will be made by the leader of each Club. Get in touch if you wish to speak and I shall pass on details. There will also be a small prize for the best guest speaker.

The Parliamentary starts at 3pm and the Afternoon Session ends around 7pm, at which point we have dinner. If you wish to join us for dinner (to which you are most welcome) the cost is £10 BUT we need numbers by Tuesday 13 March. The Evening Session will commence around 8.30pm, and finish (roughly) 1am. As it is the last Parliamentary, the Clerks then retire to work out who has won, while everyone else consumes a large volume of complimentary alcohol. Hopefully, the results shall be available within a few hours, and will then be announced by candlelight in the Debates Chamber in the wee small hours.

We guarantee a fantastic night of true GUU hospitality, and we'd love you to take your chance to join in.

There is no charge, other than for dinner if you wish to attend. You will receive lots of free alcohol in the Evening Session, and we can offer crash if required. Please let us know if you're coming in advance to have an estimate of numbers. Dress code for the Evening Session is officially black tie, though a suit shall suffice. Please note that to sit in the Chamber, the dress code is a minimum of shirt and trousers (female equivalent: office wear) and there is a strict no denim and no trainers policy. To speak, you must be wearing a tie and ideally a jacket.

Any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with myself at kirstykakanskas[at]gmail[dot]com, or the Debates Convener at debates[at]guu[dot]co[dot]uk.

The guide to Parliamentary debating can be found at the following link -
http://www.gudialectic.co.uk/archives.html - and contains more information.

Hoping to see you there, as well as at Ancients on 2nd/3rd March (details of which can be found at http://glasgowancients2012.wordpress.com).

Kirsty Kakanskas
Head Clerk

Glasgow University Union

Edinburgh IV‏

The first Scottish tournament of the season was held by the Edinburgh Debating Society on the 24th of October. It was won by Monash B (Will Jones and Andrew Fitch). Other teams in the final were: Oxford RP (Melanie Pope and Scott Ralston), St Andrews A (James Beadle and Farhan) and GUU B (John McKee and Krum). The top speaker was Will Jones.
The motions were:
Round 1: THB that university graduates should pay the cost of their university education through a graduate tax.
Round 2: THB that if the biological father is willing and able to raise the future child, he should have the right to prevent the abortion.
Round 3: THB that the EU should recognise an independent state of Palestine.
Round 4: THW subsidise companies for the employment of ex-convicts.
FINAL: THB that states should have to re-ratify all international treaties every 25 years.

Judging the final were: Leela Koenig (C), Gavin Illsley, Vicky Smith, Ewan MacDonald, Kirsty Russell, Sarah Beverstock and David Norris.

We hope to see many of you at the Scottish Weekend in Edinburgh and St. Andrews from February 4-6!!

ESU Scotland Juniors Debating Championship

The Final of the ESU Scotland Juniors Debating Championship took place at the Centre For Contemporary Arts in Glasgow on 23rd May.

The four teams in the final were:

1st Proposition - St. Columba's Kilmacolm
1st Opposition - Douglas Academy
2nd Proposition - George Heriot's School
2nd Opposition - Aberdeen Grammar School

The motion was: This House Would Make Voting Compulsory.

The winners were Jack Patterson and Harris Jones of George Heriot's School.

Over 130 teams entered the ESU Juniors this year and the standard throughout was fantastic. The victory completes a remarkable clean sweep of ESU Scotland trophies by Heriot's. The school also won the ESU Scotland Public Speaking Trophy and, for the second year running, Georgina Barker and Hannah Mackaness won the ESU Scotland Schools Mace.

Congratulations to them all.

RCM

St. Andrews Day Debating Championships‏

Source: Britishdebate

Dear All,
Yesterday, The Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament and ESU Scotland organised the St. Andrews Day Debating Championships.

A three-round IV took place in the Committee Rooms of the Parliament yesterday and the final took place in the Chamber of the Parliament - the first time the Chamber has been used for a University debate.

We are very grateful to the Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson MSP, for allowing us to use the Chamber and for chairing the final.

The teams in the final were: Oxford Alba (Cullen & Dewar), GUU A (Tait & Gray), St. Andrews A (Whitbread & Hawkins) and St. Andrews B (Wood & Beadle).

The winners were St. Andrews A (Hawkins and Whitbread) and the runners up were GUU A (Tait & Gray). The best speaker on tab was Rachael Whitbread. The judges for the final were John Duncan, Director of ESU Scotland, Kenny Fleming, Kenny MacAskill MSP,

It was a great turn-out in the final, with well over 100 people, attending. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank The Scottish Parliament for providing events staff throughout the day and for feeding and watering us very generously and The Scottish Government for expanding the one-off debate last year into a tournament. Hopefully, this association will grow over the coming years.

Thank you also to all the judges who helped throughout the day, the audience for the final which helped the ESU make a great impression and, finally, to the speakers who were great throughout.

Best wishes,

Rob Marrs

Cork/Galway win Ancients 2008

The Composite team of Stephen Nolan and Nuala Kane (although really both ex-UCG) won the 2008 Glasgow Ancients from 1st opposition in the final

In the final they defeated
1st Gov Diarmuid Early & Doug Cochrane
2nd Gov Art Ward & Kenny Fleming
2nd Opp Brendan Bruen & Derek Doyle

Stephen Nolan was the top ranked speaker.

Motions
R1: TTHW introduce a minimum price restriction for the sale of all alcoholic beverages
R2: TTHW legalise incest between consenting siblings of the age of majority
R3: TTH loves the smell of napalm in the morning (Open Motion)
R4: TTHW force pharmaceurtical companies to give full disclosure of clincial trials
R5: TTHB the government should never fund IVF treatment

Semi-Final: TTHW refuse to recognise an independent Kosovo
Final: TTHW restrict access to pro-anorexia websites

Results from Scotland

There were three IVs in Scotland this weekend.

ESU European Parliament IV

16 teams from across Europe competed in the ESU European Parliament IV. St Andrews (representing Scotland) won the IV with Rich Penny of Helsinki, Finland the top speaker on the tab and Art Ward of Cork, Ireland the best speaker in the final.

The finalists were:
1st Prop - Deree College representing Greece (Manos & Eirinie)
1st Opp - St. Andrews representing Scotland (Doug & Connie)
2nd Prop - UCC representing Ireland (Art & Tiernan)
2nd Opp - Hesinki University representing Finland (Rich & Ina)

The motion for the final was: This House Believes That The European Union Should Have A Common Foreign Policy.

Strathclyde Cup

UC Cork (Tiernan Fitzgibbon & Art Ward) won the Strathclyde Cup with Beth O'Connor the top speaker on the tab.

The final was:
1st Prop - Fluffy Liberal Kittens (Ewan MacDonald & Beth Connor)
1st Opp - Old People (Kenny Fleming & Jason Vit)
2nd Prop - Molotov & Ribbentrop (Niall Kennedy & John Stewart)
2nd Opp - UCC (Tiernan Fitzgibbon & Art Ward)

Motion for the final: This House Believes That Universities Should Act To Curb The Binge Drinking Activities Of Their Students.



Edinburgh IV
The Composite team of Art Ward and Doug Cochran won the Edinburgh IV.



The final was contested between:
1st Prop - Maddie A Torso (John Stewart & Jason Vit)
1st Opp - Manchester DB (Dan Bradley & James Dixon)
2nd Prop - Durham A (Calum Jones & Rachel Francis)
2nd Opp - Trinny & Suzannah (Art Ward & Doug Cochran)

Motion for the final: This House Would Partition Iraq.





Source: Britishdebate

ESU European Parliament IV Draw

The ESU European Parliament IV, due to be held at the University of Strathclyde on February 2, 2008, will bring together 16 teams from 16 different EU member states after ESU Scotland received funding to run a series of events commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. Out of the 30 universities from 17 countries that applied, here is the list of participants for the IV:

1) Scotland – University of St. Andrews
2) England – Cambridge Union Society
3) Ireland – UCC
4) Wales – Cardiff University
5) Germany – Tilbury House
6) The Netherlands – University of Leiden
7) Finland – University of Helsinki
8) Czech Republic – Charles University
9) Portugal – University of Oporto
10) Slovenia – To be arranged
11) Bulgaria - SU St. Kliment Ohridski
12) France – Paris
13) Greece - Athens
14) Estonia – Tallinn University
15) Latvia – Stockholm School of Economics
16) Lithuania – Vilnius University

ESU European Parliament IV

Dear All,

Earlier this year, ESU Scotland received European Parliament funding to run a series of events to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. These are –

A Public Speaking Competition for school pupils across Scotland
A public debate to be held in Glasgow later in 2007
And, most importantly for student debaters, a 16 team European IV to be held at the University of Strathclyde in February 2008.

The ESU European Parliament IV will take place on Friday 2nd February 2008 at the University of Strathclyde. This will be followed by the Strathclyde Cup on the Saturday and the Edinburgh IV on the Sunday.

There will be 16 teams at the ESU European Parliament IV and, ideally, we would like teams from 16 countries across Europe to take part. As we have received funding from the European Parliament, there is provision in the budget to get teams to and from Scotland and to accommodate them over the weekend. All teams would, obviously, be welcome (and, indeed, encouraged) to stay on for the Strathclyde and Edinburgh tournaments.

If you are interested in the tournament or interested in being the representatives from your country, please do get in contact with me. Where there are numerous requests from one country, we will pick from the hat to decide who comes! The only criteria for teams is that they must be from a European Union Country.

Thank you, and if you have any questions about the tournament, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.

Rob

Speech & Debates Officer
ESU Scotland
debates@esuscotland.org.uk

Glasgow win the Scottish Mace

Winners :
GUU A (DavidAdams & Claire Brown).

Finalists:
St. Andrews C (Whitbread & Hawkins)
St. Andrews F (Vit & Murphy)
Aberdeen C (Reid & Saleem)

Aberdeen IV

The winners of the Aberdeen IV are Glasgow University Union C (Claire Brown & David Adams).
Finalists :Team Ice Cream (Jason Vit & Jenni Harrison) St Andrews (Tom Cahn & Miles Wood) GUU B (Richard Anderson & Neil Armstrong)

Best Speaker on Tab - Claire Brown
Best Speaker on Final - Claire Brown

Dundee Open 2007 results

Doug Cochran & Patrick Rooney won the Dundee Open. In the final they defeated Bob Nimmo & Jason Vit, Gavin Illsley & Neil Dewar and Gregg O'Neill & Tony Murphy.

R1: THW fully elect the House of Lords
R2: THW allow UN Peacekeeper to shoot first
R3: THW allow people to sell their organs (for extraction while they are still alive)!
R4: THW allow the police to use entrapment
Final: THW restrict the media to fight the war on terror.

St Andrews win Edinburgh IV

St Andrews (Jason Vit & Doug Cochrane) won the Edinburgh IV

The final line up was

1st Prop - St Andrews (Jason Vit and Doug Cochrane)

1st Opp - Manchester (Dan James and Dan Bradley)

2nd Prop - Durham (Ian Chapman and Siddharth Khajuria)

2nd Opp = Aberdeen (Aissa Watson and Karen Reid)

The final motion was on allowing Catholic adoption agencies to opt out of equality legislation.

GUU ancients

Dear All,

With now only a month to Ancients (23rd and 24th February), everything is hotting up!!

CA has changed from Alex Deane to our old friend Derek Lande, CA of Cork Worlds 2009.

Andrew Neil, host of the Daily Politics, will be guest chairing the final of the competition, and joining in the dancing afterwards.

Registration is £45 and on www.glasgowancients.co.uk. Register fast, space is filling up...

See you then!

Jonny Hardman

Convenor of Debates

GUU

Glasgow Ancients

e-mail from Glasgow

Dear all,

I hope that everyone has enjoyed the festive period, and had a good worlds if you were there.

I am emailling to remind everyone that the Glasgow University Union's Ancient Universities debating championship is on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th of February of this year.

Registration is 45 pounds, and this includes 5 rounds of debating, plus semis and final, food for the weekend (including our famous black tie championship dinner), as much drink as you can shake a stick at on the Saturday night, and yakka-fueled ceildih dancing into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Coupled with this we also have one of, if not the best, judging panels on the circuit, this year lead by Alex Deane, worlds winner and DCA at worlds in Vancouver.

Visit www.glasgowancients.co.uk for all details and to register for the competition.

See you then!

Jonny Hardman

Convenor of Debates

Glasgow University Union.

Durham win Bogwall

Durham have won the Scottish Maidens competition (even though they are English but that's a long story). In the final they St Andrews, Edinburgh and another Durham Team.

e-mail from GUU

Dearest all,

As you all know we are hosting the ESU Masters 2006 on 30th September 2006 at the Glasgow University Union. We have got a decent number on board thus far and it is shaping up to be a great event!

However, it is very much a more the merrier event and we hope to have as many people along as possible. So if you guys could promote it around your friends, or to anyone you think might be interested that would be fantastic.

The GUU is a great venue to host IVs as many of you know and we are expecting the event to be a lot of fun. Although, it is a great chance to meet up with some old friends and have a few beers, we know what debaters are like once a competition gets going and we are expecting the debates to be very humorous and of a decent quality. It’s £25 for an individual and £50 for a team. We’ll pair individuals up on the day.

The only criteria for entry is to be ineligible for the Mace, Worlds or Euros. If you would like any further information, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.
Thanks, and I hope to see you all soon.

Rob Marrs,
Speech & Debates Officer,
ESU Scotland.

Scottish Masters Details

Dearest all,

We at ESU Scotland are pleased to announce that we are hosting the inaugural Scottish Masters in association with The Glasgow University Union. The event is to take place in the GUU on the 30th September 2006.

The competition is open to anyone (including non Scots, people not resident in Scotland and people who were not debaters at University) - the only criterion is that competitors must not be in full-time education i.e. cannot be eligible to take part in the John Smith Memorial Mace, WUDC or EUDC.

The event will be as much about socialising and catching up with some old friends as it will be about debating. Although the competition is taking place on the Saturday, we would advise to come up (if possible) on the Friday evening.

Competitors can either come along as a team or can come along as individuals and we will pair you up with someone! Entrance will be £50 per team or £25 per individual. The team cap is 32.

If you would like to hear more information about the ESU Scottish Masters please do not hesitate to contact me. Alternatively, I will be down at the Durham Open so please speak to me about this there!

Kindest regards,

Robert Marrs,
Speech & Debates Officer,
ESU Scotland,
debates@esuscotland.org.uk
0131 229 1528.

GUU Masters

ESU Scotland is planning an Masters tournament for graduates only in late September. It is going to be a one day tournament held at the GUU. Student debaters will be the judges.

More details shortly.

UCC win Dundee IV

UCC Team Of Derek Lande and Tony Murphy won the Dundee IV.

Durham Win Glasgow Ancients

Durham have won the Glasgow Ancients tournament defeating Oxford, St Andrews ans Cambridge in the final.

R1 THW introduce a compulsary national service
R2 THW legalise beastiality
R3 THW Invade (insert oppresive regime here)
R4 THW allow IVF to be used to enginer donors for sick siblings
Final THB Britain should pay reperations to its former colonies.