Mace 2008-2009

[lem55]

Round one of the John Smith Memorial Mace is upon us and the motion for the first round is:

THW directly elect procurator fiscals.

Congratulations to:
Zoe and Frank as well as Chris and Rachael for getting through their rounds last night.

[Imago]

THW directly elect procurator fiscals.

Actually it's 'procurators fiscal' - one of the fairly rare instances in English where the noun precedes the adjective - and English adjectives are not known for their policy on agreements.

This correct usage is of course undermined by popular references to 'the fiscal' as though the qualification of his/her function had become in some way substantive.

[Imago]

Just realised this sounds as though I'm getting at you, Laura - I'm absolutely not!! - was just discussing it with Dickie but two hours ago and then came home and found your post so thought I would be pedantic!

[CorporationDialectica]

To be fair to me the original motion did have the s in the right place.

Also its not that rare - there are dozens of compound plurals.

[Imago]

Also its not that rare - there are dozens of compound plurals.

But not all of them sound as un-English as, say, sheriffs-substitute; most people can manage courts-martial and mothers-in-law. However several of the speakers in the actual debate referred to PFs - there not being, I think, an elegant way of expressing PsF! Plus the fact that P1 managed an entire 7 minutes without once using the word 'elect' made for a different debate...

[CorporationDialectica]

or Convenors of Debate

I have no control over what people say in debates, and would like to disavow any knowledge of anyone whose actions inlude ignoring words in the motion

[lem55]

As for my getting the motion wrong, my apologies.

Congratulations to all our teams going through to the second round:

Zoe and Frank
Rachael and Chris
Owen and Duncan
Phil and Farhan
James and Miles
Tom and Daniel

[CorporationDialectica]

Well done to you all,

Can I suggeset that all competitors/judges/other interested parities sign up to the mace facebook group?

[lem55]

With three out of four second round heats now completed (the fourth will be held in January but there are not any St Andrews teams in it), it seems appropriate to post an update.

The motion was 'THW allow the direct to consumer market of perscription only pharmaceuticals'.

Three St Andrews teams were in one heat so the maximum number of teams we could get through to the semi-finals was 5. After alot of hard work this was managed so congratulations go to the teams going through:

Zoe and Frank
Rachael and Chris
James and Miles
Phil and Farhan
Tom and Daniel

Commiserations go the sixth team, Owen and Duncan.

[Philip Goose]

I hope I'm not stealing Laura's thunder with this one...

Yesterday both semi-finals of the Scottish Mace 08-09 were held in Edinburgh on the motion:
"THB in time limits for bringing war criminals to trial."

St Andrews had a very strong showing in the semis which represents the hard work, dedication and ability of all our teams, with two St Andrean teams in one semi and three in the other. Again, the maximum we could have got through to the final would have been four out of the five teams, and this was almost achieved, with the teams going through being:

Rachael and Chris,
Phil and Farhan,
Tom and Daniel.

The other team progressing to the final are Katrina Shand and Andy Gray from GUU. Comiserations to Zoe & Frank and James & Miles, both teams were in first prop and set up very good debates. It's a shame that all of our teams couldn't go through- they certainly deserved to! It is great that we've managed to equal our showing in the final from last year, and hopefully one of our teams will be able to repeat the heroics of Doug and Connie and retain the (title? trophy? mace?) for another year.

The final will be held at Edinburgh City Chambers on the 24th March at 7pm, with positions and the motion yet to be decided. So come, pick a team to cheer and bring your banners!

Phil.