*The Debatewise Blog
Success!
To further what Dave said, the Speakers' Corner Event was undoubtedly a great success. He didn’t mention that we had a few celebrities in our midst as well: Samir Deger-Sen is the 2008 world debating champion, and John Stewart (Plane Stupid) has been named by the Environment Agency as the 82nd most influential green activist of all time - Just one position behind Mahatma Gandhi! With such a line-up I was grateful I wasn’t needed to speak!The Schedule went as follows:
1.20 p.m Cheap flights do more harm than good
FOR: John Stewart (Plane Stupid) AGAINST: Sarah Lynch (rapid response team)
1.40 p.m This house would rather cancel third world debt than bail out an investment bank
FOR: Nick Dearden (Jubilee Debt) AGAINST: Joe Spark (head debate coach at Cardiff)
2.00 p.m This house would build a third runway at Heathrow
FOR: Dave! AGAINST: John Stewart (Plane Stupid)
3.00 p.m This house would have an E.U constitution
FOR: Joe Spark (head debate coach at Cardiff) AGAINST: Steve Radford (Liberal Party)
3.20 p.m This house believes ID cards are a good idea
FOR: Samir Deger-Sen (world debate champion) AGAINST: Guy Herbert (No2ID)
Having attracted stars to speak the Debatewise event also drew in the usual celebrity add-ons - namely crowds, hecklers and zoom lenses. The debate between Jubilee Debt’s Nick Dearden and our own Cardiff University debate coach Joe Spark drew a pretty large and animated crowd, not least because of it’s controversial motion: ‘This house would rather drop Third World debt than bail out an investment bank’. One member of the crowd became so involved that Joe offered him his place on the soapbox and, donning a Debatewise cap, the man proceeded to argue against Jubilee Debt. Now that’s what I call audience participation!
Although I haven’t quite mastered my new baby (the Nikon D40) yet, I did have a play around and managed at least to get some evidence the event took place!
So good times were had all round and I hope to see you all at the next one
