Thanks to Ionut Stefan and Eliot Pallot British Parliamentary Debating Thanks to Ionut Stefan and Eliot Pallot

4 Teams 2 speakers per time 15 minutes preparation time 5 minutes speeches 15 minutes adjudication time 15 minutes speaking time

“Rules” of Britisth Parliamentary Formally all speakers in a debate are meant to do certain things In real terms these are guides to having a constructive debate and being persuasive Your ultimate goal is to persuade the “average reasonable voter” of your side of the motion – not following these rules would make that very difficult

Opening Government (OG) Opening Opposition (OO) Prime Minister 3. Deputy Prime Minister 2. Leader of Opposition (LO) 4. Deputy Leader of Opposition (DLO) TOP HALF Closing Government (CG) Closing Opposition (CO) Team gets to decide who speaks first and who speaks second 5. Member of Government (MG) 7. Government Whip (GW) 6. Member of Opposition (MO) 8. Opposition Whip (OW) BOTTOM HALF

Opening Government (OG) 1. Prime Minister Set up the debate i.e. definitions, mechanism, criteria. Problem, mechanism/solution, why it works. arguments 3. Deputy Prime Minister Respond to Leader of Opposition’s arguments. Defend PM’s arguments against LO’s refutations. Possibly new arguments

Opening Opposition (OO) 2. Leader of Opposition Respond directly to Prime Minister’s arguments. Set up team-line/principle. New arguments 4. Deputy Leader of Opposition Respond to OGs arguments. Defend LO’s arguments against DPM’s refutations. New arguments.

Closing Government (CG) 5. Member of Government (Extension Speaker) Refute OO (especially DLO’s arguments) Make some NEW arguments OR Provide FAR more detail on OG’s argument(s). 7. Government Whip (Summary Speaker) Respond directly to Member of Opposition’s arguments (the only one on Gov bench who can). Summarise the debate Structure: clash points Not allowed to make new arguments Explain why CG won

Closing Opposition (CO) 6. Member of Opposition (Extension Speaker) Refute Member of Government’s extension (has to be done here and not in the summary). Two/three extension arguments. 8. Opposition Whip (Summary Speaker) Respond directly to Closing Government Summarise the debate Structure: clash points Not allowed to make new arguments Explain why CO won

How to make solid, structured arguments

PEEL Point Explanation Example Link Point: State what you will say Explanation: Say why what you say will happen, how this will happen, etc Example: Give an example Link: Why this matters

Explanation Now Solution Then Now: Explain why there is a problem Solution: Explain how the motion solves this problem Then: Explain why this will be better than before

Don't forget about this bit! Structuring a speech Don't forget about this bit!

So...what are you going to say? 1. How many substantive points you are going to make 2. What those points are and briefly explain why they are important 3. Explain that you are going to do rebuttal first, and how many points you will have 4. Do rebuttal 5. Sign-post first substantive point 6. Explain first point 7. Do the same for the rest points 8. With about 15 seconds to go, summarise what you've said

Summary  Why your arguments are more likely or more impactful Outline 1. rebuttal : What Opp said Why this is wrong 2. rebuttal: 1. Argument PEEL 2. Argument Summary  Why your arguments are more likely or more impactful

Questions???