Home

TheSinner.net

USA Election Debate

Your opportunity to discuss goings on in the Debating Society, recent debates or any issues you believe are important. Questions or queries can be addressed to the moderator at debates@st-andrews.ac.uk.

USA Election Debate

Postby Laura on Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:07 am

Just wanted to say that the debate last night was the first one I had been to in a very long time, and it was so enjoyable- congratulations to Jess on getting such good speakers. It is so nice to see a mix of students who are really passionate about a topic (rather than someone from the board of ten who has to wing it) and some great externals from relevant organisations. I thought they were all brilliant last night (especially the chap from the New York Times, who was a massive silver fox...)
Only thing is that seven minutes is such a short period of time for a guest who has come a long way to try and squeeze their speech into- seems almost a waste of their time! It would have been really nice to have seen the two sides engage a bit more, but you could tell they weren't taking POIs because they had so much of their case left to make- even ten minutes would be better to allow them to not have to drop huge chunks of it. I would be in favour of less time for floor speeches and more time for the core debate- although I realise that it's a University debate and students want to make their point, some of the things they say are embarrassing and you can't help sitting there thinking 'I'd rather hear the rest of the speech that the guy from Democrats Abroad or Douglas Murray had intended to make, rather than a five minute rant from some student about why Obama reminds him of Morgan Freeman...'
The UDS should definitely go forward with their idea of having some Oxford Union-esque addresses from speakers so we can hear a bit more of their wisdom (especially when they've been travelling all day in order to impart it!)
"When I came back to Dublin, I was courtmartialled in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence."
Laura
 
Posts: 741
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2003 3:15 pm

Return to Union Debating Society

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests

cron