Bath University Debating Society (BUDS) performed excellently at the University of Exeter’s Inter-Varsity tournament on February 2^nd, with a stellar performance in the first five rounds before reaching the final.

Reunited after the Bristol competition in last October, Hadleigh Roberts and Alex Vakil made up “Talk Bath”. Within the catacombs of Exeter’s Law Department, high levels talks began at 10am and ended at 10.30pm.

Although narrowly defeated in the final, Talk Bath was given the task of leading the case for the Opposition to “This House would give back the Falklands.” The overall winners for the event were Warwick leading the proposition, despite that when the motion was revealed they were overheard saying “The who?” and thought that the Falklands war was an illegal invasion of Argentinean territory by the British.

The battleground was thus drawn around history, although the judges apparently decided to forgive Warwick’s lack of knowledge. Talk Bath, fronted by Alex, decided to attack with points relating to national pride, and the fact that there is no logical reason to give back the islands in peacetime, and that the proposal would have a detrimental effect for Falklanders. Hadleigh continued the case by raising the implications for the rest of the commonwealth, the strategic importance of the Falklands, and that the proposal would show political weakness from the UK. Alex decided to advance on grounds of factual knowledge. Hadleigh, in response to the point that ‘the Falklands are an unnecessary economic burden on Britain’, explained that the economy was able to cope with this ‘burden’ thanks to “the lowest inflation of any decade, the highest employment in any decade, low interest rates and overall stability…” to the amusement of the audience.

In the qualifying rounds, Talk Bath came third in Round 1, first in Rounds 2, 3 and 4, then third again in Round 5.

The second round was Talk Bath’s finest hour; leading opposition to the motion that “This House would ban all outward expressions of religious affiliation in our state schools”. Hadleigh acquired 26 points, the maximum possible for any speech, and Alex earned an equally extraordinary 25 points. The main points here were relating to freedom of expression, that the proposal would increase resentment in society, would further the gap between state and private education, and that state schools are representative of the nation. Talk Bath was clearly on the offensive following the previous round; having accepted a point from another speaker, Hadleigh asked, “Don’t you agree?” to which the speaker replied “No” and was curtly instructed to sit down, before the speaker was able to develop his point.

The third round was another excellent success, with Alex achieving 20 points and Hadleigh 25, extending the case for the proposition that “This House believes the individual has the right to be fat.” Hadleigh’s novel argument was that, analytically, being fat could be used as a barometer for economic prosperity, and furthermore stimulated economic growth; the USA has the biggest economy and the highest rate of obesity, and that fatter people increased demand (on food companies!) and results in a spiral of improvement. Alex did a tremendous job of summarising what was hitherto an unclear argument, due to the bizarre members of the Cardiff team yelling “Nanny State? Bad!” The judge even explained, “as far as summary speeches go, that was structurally perfect.”

Ultimately, this success bodes very well for the future of BUDS, and indeed in light of this success, a team of two other students have been sent from Bath to the Debating Tournament in Cardiff, which took place on February 9^th.