Intercollege Debating Lives On!

This tradition started in the 1990s and has now been reinvigorated.  The competition was made up of four key sessions where participants were able to take part in speech and debating training from both the Debating and Public Speaking Society to develop their skills. After weeks of planning and preliminary rounds, teams were narrowed down to four. In the semi finals colleges Furness, Bowland, County and Fylde debated the motion ‘This House Believes the State Should not fund Human Reproductive Treatment’ and with excellent performances from all teams the judges were in for a tough time. After much deliberation County and Bowland went through to the finals. The motion for the final was the rather topical ‘This House Supports the use of Drones in War’ and both teams put in incredibly well researched and impassioned performances making it a very close debate. Luckily, we had an excellent panel of judges, which included Dr Mark Lacy from the Politics Department, PhD student Joshua Hughes (specialising in Drones), and Fiona Brittle from the charity Debate Mate, who, together were able to make a unanimous decision and eventually awarded the prize of winner to Bowland College. 

Congratulations to Alice Jeonghyun Lee, Peter Baxter, George Ridgard and Tobias Whelan who formed the winning Bowland team. They were presented with £50 vouchers each and the historic College Debating Mace.