A huge congratulations is in order for the St Andrew’s College debating team, who this weekend were successful in their Palladian campaign. The team successfully won five of five debates and placed first overall, with Will Price (Fr 2021) selected as best speaker of the competition, as well as teammates Gemma Hudson (Fr 2021) and Onor Nottle (Fr 2020) placing in the top 10 overall.
Well done team!
Read a report on the events by the Debating Secretary, Will Price:
“In round one Will, Charlie Sayers (Fr 2022) and Toby Freeman (Fr 2022) affirmed the motion that universities should continue to offer online learning for all courses once the COVID-19 pandemic has ended against Sancta Sophia College.
In the second round Onor, Will and Gemma negated the motion that we should abolish plea bargains against St Paul’s College. It was great to see a good turnout of Drew’s supporters.
Round three saw Charlie, Onor and Gemma affirming that we support the narrative that you should avoid consuming art produced by morally problematic artists, they debated against Wesley College in a hotly contested debate with examples ranging from Nazi films to Cardi B, and JK Rowling to Harvey Weinstein.
In round four Onor, Toby and Will successfully affirmed the motion that we support the introduction of term limits for all national leaders against St John’s College, winning with an argument about democratic backsliding into dictatorships as seen in the Philippines and Hungary.
The final round’s theme was the environment, with Onor, Will and Gemma negating the motion that the environmentalist movement should prioritise organising and appealing to local communities rather than pursuing a global agenda. This debate was against The Women’s College. The team successfully proved that a large-scale impact on climate change is more likely when the movement has a global focus.
The team would like to thank all the USU adjudicators for their hard work in judging the competition, and the other Colleges for hosting us and providing some very spirited debates.”