Winners of the Aberystwyth Open – Katrin Fallman (left) and Tommy Cave (right) – © Craig McDonald

Congratulations to ‘The Anti-Frederalist League’ (Tommy Cave, Katrin Fallman, University of West Midlands Union (Warwick and Birmingham)) for winning the Aberystwyth Open 2017. They won the final from Closing Government defeating ‘Sounds like your analysis needs a bit more nuance’ (Freddie Marshall, Warwick, Dean Foley, Manchester) in Opening Government, ‘Spanish Armanda’ (Jim McKenna, UCL, and Armand Lluka, Nottingham Trent) in Opening Opposition and ‘What do you mean this isn’t Glasgow?’ (Rayne Goddard, Hull, Abbie Green, Liverpool) in Closing Opposition on the motion “Given the power of invisibility, This House would kick Putin in the balls”.

The Final was judged by Craig McDonald in the chair, and Rosalie Butcher, Joshua Green, Ieuan Skinner, Megan Thomas, and John Fairclough on the panel.

Aberystwyth Open CA Team – Craig McDonald (left) and Rosalie Butcher (right) – © Craig McDonald

The Top Speaker of the Tournament was Freddie Marshall with an average of 82 speaker points.

The Chief Adjudicators of the Tournament were Craig McDonald and Rosalie Butcher. It was convened was Nick Dorey. The tournament took place on Saturday April 8^th.

The Break:

1. Sounds like your analysis needs a bit more nuance (Freddie Marshall, Warwick, Dean Foley, Manchester) – 12 points
2. Spanish Armanda (Jim McKenna, Armand Lluka) – 9 points
3. The Anti-Frederalist League (Tommy Cave, Katrin Fallman) – 8 points
4. What do you mean this isn’t Glasgow? (Rayne Goddard, Abbie Green) – 7 points

The Aberystwyth Open is famous for alternative themed motions.

This year’s set:

Rd 1: Info Text: This debate is set in “Attack on Titan universe” – The majority of planet earth is occupied by Titans. Titans are man-killing giants. Humanity has been able to preserve themselves by taking all known survivors into a city surrounded by a wall system.  People in the outer rung are working-class agricultural workers.  The Titans have just broken through the outer wall of the city. The head of state can deploy soldiers to plug up the wall and fight the titans that have entered. It is unclear whether or not this will be successful.

This House, as the Heads of State, would take military action to plug up the wall.

Rd 2: Info Text: For the purpose of this debate; there exists one all-powerful, all-loving and all-seeing God.

This House, as God, would create humanity to not feel extreme emotions.

Rd 3: Info Text: A regional institution in debating is when several societies who are geographically close to one another share resources with each other. Most of the time, but not always, regional institutions will have their own democratic structures. For example, NAMDA is an alliance between Northern and Midlands debating societies in the UK with a democratic structure. ULU is an alliance between all London institutions without one.

This House would aggressively encourage debating societies to create regional institutions.

Rd 4: Info Text: “Service-me” tokens are government tokens that allow you to purchase state-provided goods and services. How many tokens people receive is decided by the government. Tokens are allocated once a year and are the only way people can access state-provided goods and services. The amount of government funding a service receives is tied to the amount of tokens it collects.

This House supports the use of “Service-me” tokens in Western Liberal Democracies.

Final: Info Text: You are in an alley. All of a sudden, you are hit by an unknown power that grants you invisibility for 1 minute. After this happens, Vladmir Putin walks down the alley.

Given the power of invisibility, This House would kick Putin in the balls.

hh./cmc/jm.