Winners of the Manchester IV Open Final 2017: Owen Mooney (left), Eileen De Souza (right) – © Craig McDonald

Congratulations to the three winning teams of this year’s Manchester IV!

The Open Final was won by GUU Clubs of alcohol and depravity (Owen Mooney and Eileen De Souza) in Closing Government. They defeated Oxford HC (Jure Hederih and Louis Collier) in Opening Government, UCL Janeway (Martin Devenney and Leo Yung) in Opening Opposition, and Edinburgh Nevertheless, She Persisted (Ethan Silver and Nishith Hedge) in Closing Opposition on the motion “This house believes that militaries in new democracies should act as guardians of secularism”.

The Open Final was judged by Eliot Pallot in the chair, with Nathan Chalk, Chloe Romanis, Becky Elkington, and Craig McDonald on the panel.

The ESL Final was won by Warwick Always on time (Katrin Fallman and Alexandru Giurgea) in Opening Opposition. They defeated Amsterdam ASDV (Tom Pouw and Marike Breed) in Opening Government, Munich A (Melda Eren and Wladislaw Jachtchenko) in Closing Government, and Heidelberg Cement – make arguments, not walls (Pascal Beleiu and Benedikt Rennekamp) in Closing Opposition.

Winners of the Manchester IV ESL Final 2017: Katrin Fallman (left), Alexandru Guirgea (right) – © Craig McDonald

The ESL Final was judged by Olivia Sundberg Diez in the chair, with Nicole Liu, Radko Nedyalkov, Catrin Richards, and Griffin Fallow on the panel.

The Pro-Am Final was won by Lancaster Rabbit (Katy Hatter and Adas Li) in Opening Government. They defeated Durham Spice (Martha Muir and Coco Collard) in Opening Opposition, Strathclyde A series of unfortunate resorts to backlash (Jack Stanley and Liam Oldrey) in Closing Government, and Durham Everything nice (Eric Sargent and Bethany Holden) in Closing Opposition.

The Pro-Am Final was judged by Raffy Marshall in the chair, with David Bender, Raluca Vacaru, Declan Leahy, and Tim Sharpe on the panel.

The motion for the ESL Final and the Pro-Am Final was the same: “This house believes that the opposition to populist leaders (e.g. Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Frauke Petry) should cease employing comparisons to the rise of Hitler”.

Winners of the Manchester IV Pro-Am Final 2017: Katy Hatter (left), Adas Li (right) – © Craig McDonald

The top speaker was Sophie Large with an average of 84.2. The top ESL speaker was Hassan Aftab Bachani with an average of 82. The joint top Novice speakers were Eileen De Souza and Abel Law with an average of 79.4 each.

The convening team for the competition was led by Rudolfs Treilis and the CA team consisted of Olivia Sundberg Diez, Raffy Marshall, and Emma Lucas. The tournament was held over the days of February 18^th and 19^th.

The Breaks:

Open:

1. Oxford Louis and Jure (Sophie Large, Teck Wei Tan) – 15 points
2. Oxford HC (Jure Hederih, Louis Collier) – 12 points
3. Edinburgh Nevertheless, She Persisted (Ethan Silver, Nishith Hedge) – 12 points
4. Lancaster I’d hate to call you a racist at my dinner party but (Hassan Aftab Bachani, Susanna Vahtramae) – 11 points
5. UCL Janeway (Martin Devenney, Leo Yung) – 11 points
6. KCL Zhivkov (Joel Richardson, Cveta Gotovats) – 11 points
7. UCL We want a rematch against Jacklin Kwan (Abel Law, Neo Wei Sheng) – 11 points
8. Glasgow Clubs of alcohol and depravity (Owen Mooney, Eileen De Souza) – 10 points
9. Moscow HSE (Ivan Velentey, Daniel Kustin) – 10 points
10. Oxford RD (Josie Dallas, Antonia Ruddle) – 10 points
11. Birmingham Matriarch and Beta Male (Rosalie Butcher, Alex Deam) – 10 points
12. Glasgow Shit Chat 2: Electric boogaloo (David MacDonald, Elliot Porter) – 10 points
13. Newcastle PC (James Cowling, Chris Paschali) – 10 points
14. Imperial Bring an umbrella for the protest and the weather (Benjamin Hilton, Gordon Cheung) – 9 points
15. LAW FM (Lucy Murphy, Megan Fennelly) – 9 points
16. Birmingham Red Guard and Red Grave (Tom Redgrave, Asif Mohammed) – 9 points

ESL:

1. ASDV Amsterdam (Tom Pouw, Marike Breed) – 9 points
2. Warwick Always on time (Katrin Fallman, Alexandru Guirgea) – 8 points
3. Heidelberg Cement – make arguments not walls (Pascal Beleiu, Benedikt Rennekamp) – 8 points
4. Munich A (Melda Eren, Wladislaw Jachtchenko) – 7 points

Pro-Am:

1. Durham Spice (Martha Muir, Coco Collard) – 9 points
2. Lancaster Rabbit (Katy Hatter, Adas Li) – 9 points
3. Strathclyde A series of unfortunate resorts to backlash (Jack Stanley, Liam Oldrey) – 9 points
4. Durham Everything nice (Eric Sargent, Bethany Holden) – 8 points

Breaking Judges:

Olivia Sundberg Diez, Emma Lucas, Raffy Marshall, Eliot Pallot, Nathan Chalk, Craig McDonald, Rory Flynn, Roel Becker, Chloe Romanis, Becky Elkington, Raluca Vacaru, David Bender, Tim Sharpe, Declan Leahy, Catrin Richards, Griffin Fallow, Nicole Liu, Radko Nedyalkov, Nicola Harvey, Dean Foley, Flora Spielman, Gemma Foster, and Mark Oliver Wilson.

The Motions:

Rd 1: This house believes that countries with overcrowded prison systems should conduct large-scale releases of offenders on minor sentences.

Rd 2: This house supports natalist policies.

Infotext: Natalism is the promotion of parenthood. Natalist policies typically seek to create financial and social incentives for individuals to reproduce (for example granting tax breaks or priority access to services to parents or spending heavily on childcare provision).

Rd 3: This house supports collective strike action by migrants against anti-immigrant policies.

Rd 4: This house, as the IMF, the ECB, and the World Bank would remove all international financial assistance to Greece and redirect the financial resources to cash payments directly to the poorest 10% of the global population.

Rd 5: This house supports the extrajudicial killing by police of suspected leaders of mafia organisations.

QF: This house, as an attractive educated woman, would choose to marry for money rather than pursue a career.

ESL/PA-F: This house believes that the opposition to populist leaders (e.g. Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Frauke Petry) should cease employing comparisons to the rise of Hitler.

SF: This house believes that the EU should decriminalise people smuggling

Infotext: It is not a criminal offence for an asylum seeker to pay a smuggler, if this is their only way to reach safety and apply for asylum.

Smuggling (i.e. directly or indirectly helping a non-EU citizen to enter or live in an EU country) is illegal and punishable with prison.

Smuggling becomes human trafficking and fraud if migrants never give their informed consent to cross a border. Human trafficking is illegal.

Recklessness, manslaughter or murder is separate from smuggling and is also illegal.

F: This house believes that militaries in new democracies should act as guardians of secularism.

hh./cmc./jm.