Congratulations to the opposition for successfully opposing the decriminalisation of drugs. We were pleased to see the standard begin its assent as you all continue to get the hang of the formalities involved.
I feel the opposition won not because they produced an exceptionally better case forward but because the proposition failed to explain and demonstrate clearly why decriminalisation was necessary. Call it the proposition’s burden of proof!
What the proposition needed to do was attain the moral highground on the key issues of this debate, mainly the importance of freedom of choice and the improvements to healthcare. These are the moral arguments. It is important in debates where the proposition can seem to be pursuing an immoral objective to take advantage of the fact they get to speak first and assume the ‘moral highground’. In this case it would have been to show that freedom of choice is important to avoid the slip into a ‘nanny state’ and that decriminalisation is for the benefit of the drug abusers themselves. Unfortunately the highground was left unassumed for the Opp to take and it was always going to be difficult to retain this position afterwards.
Individually, there were some pleasing speeches. Vish’s expertise and experience shone through to win the best speaker prize, he provided a great demonstration of the kind of authority and conviction I had been talking about during the beginner workshop. This is something we will work on again next week as we feel you are all far too polite at the moment when it comes to the exchange of Points of Information!
Although all the speakers received glowing feedback from myself and Ben, I feel it appropriate to reiterate that we have been left feeling very optimistic about the future of debating at Kent. The focus of criticism has been upon adapting to the format and conventions of competitive debating and this is easy to learn and develop. What isn’t easy to teach is style and delivery (almost the ‘X Factor’ of debating: you’ve either got it or you haven’t!) something that you all have demonstrated so far and something that we have been unable to really find fault with.
Next Wednesday the motion is ‘THW send their child to state school’ and will take place after our weekly skills workshop titled ‘Developing a mean streak’. Stay tuned for further details on the debate as well as a preview/research guide to the debate next week.
Look forward to seeing you all then!
Tom