Hi all,
The NZ BP Open was held over the weekend where an impressive 13 Auckland teams competed against other teams from Australia and NZ for debating glory. Included below is a report from one of the participants, although I would like to add my own thanks and congratulations to all who attended, it sounds like an outstanding time was had by all!
The New Zealand British Parliamentary Open Debating Championships ('BP') is over for another year, and although Auckland didn't come away with the victory this year, we performed well as a squad and certainly left a visible imprint on the social side of things. Hosted by Victoria University and sponsored this year by the Business Roundtable, BP consisted of six preliminary rounds – on topics as diverse as the Palestinian right of return, the legitimacy of giving parents a proxy vote to cast on behalf of their children, and whether closeted gay public figures should be "outed" by the media – followed by the semi-finals and finals on Sunday evening.
Congratulations must go firstly to Jordan Ward and Craig Riddell, who broke to the semi-finals (debating the moot "This House believes insulting religions should be a crime") before being knocked out in a high-quality debate. Reaching the semi-finals was an especially good achievement for Craig, who is only in his first year. There were others who performed promisingly, too: Ben Milsom and Mark Tushingham finished the round-robin on 12 points, and were prevented from breaking merely on the basis of speaker points (with 5 more speaker points, Ben and Tush would have broken). Meanwhile, Glenn and Desley also had several high-quality debates, as did Akif and Max; both of these teams finished on 11 points, just on the cusp of the break. Ultimately the tournament was won by "Vic 8" (Stephen Whittington and Polly Higbee – not actually Vic's eighth-best team) in a final on whether free markets or further regulation are the best solution to the credit crisis. Whilst we did not take away the silverware as our very own James and Jordan did two years ago, we put in a stellar effort all-round, with some of Auckland's younger debaters getting favourable mentions amongst the experienced adjudicators. The challenging and at times unconventional moots, along with the high-class opposition (which included three teams from Australa), provided a good test for up-and-coming debaters, and a useful extended training session for the teams going onto Worlds in Ireland later this year.
But debating tournaments are never only about debating, and plenty of fun was also had away from the debating podium. After a relaxed drinks on Friday night, the tournament dinner on Saturday night at Café Istanbul was great fun, with the addition of a belly dancer halfway through the meal capping off the evening. George Minton especially enjoyed the latter, leaping up in enthusiasm to join the dancer, to great applause. Later in the night, Rupert made great strides in fostering inter-campus relations; James Ruddell destroyed the key to his room by attempting to use it as a bottle opener for his wine; and Sergei had, in George's words, "an epic yarn" to a member of the Vic contingent after discovering that they both spoke fluent German. The final night function at the Thistle Inn concluded what was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
Overall, we can go away from the tournament with much to commend, and many things to build on for the future. We wish those teams going to Worlds in late December the best of luck as they pursue the same style of BP debating in a different setting; to the rest of those who joined us for an awesome weekend in Wellington, thanks for the memories; to everyone else, there or elsewhere, have a great holiday!
