Abingdonian 2020

7 www.abingdon.org.uk Michaelmas Term Debating Society In May 2019, I became chair of the Debating Society. I wanted to take the society in a new direction: to develop it outside of our traditional Friday debates, both by investing more in competitions and by collaborating more with students from other schools. It’s been a pleasure to preside over real success in debating competitions, particularly the Schools’ Mace. On 19 November, we played host to the first round of the regional Schools’ Mace competition. Our team, James Gibson and Johan Nerlov, defeated their opposition, then went through to the second round, where they defeated Radley at St Edwards. In March we defeated Wellington in the third round - the mid-south regional final - opposing the proposition “THW introduce a universal basic income.” Unfortunately, however, we were knocked out of the competition by Eton, who beat us on points, allowing them to progress to the next round. We also planned to host our own competition, which would bring forty students together from schools across Abingdon for an evening of debating. Several months in advance, we worked with ASiP and the debating societies of St Helen’s, Larkmead and John Mason to build a team for each school. Due to logistical issues we unfortunately had to cancel it at the last minute; however, we can pass the lessons we learned on to next year’s society, who have the plans and contacts to swoop into action. One highlight of this year was the 2019 General Election. As is custom, we ran a parallel election within school, in conjunction with the Student Council. However, I felt that past school elections focused too much on the ballot box, and avoided the issues influencing how students actually voted. To try and counter this, and discover more about our student electorate, I made a fifteen- question poll on a couple of current issues which I sent out at the beginning of election week. Over the course of the week, our candidates harangued each year group in morning hustings. In previous school elections, the Tories were usually assured of victory, with all other parties polling at around 13%. However, given that pre-election polls indicated just 21% of the school were Brexiteers, and that the Conservative Party was focused on delivering Brexit while the Liberal Democrats were pro- Remain, it quickly became a two-horse race. Despite just over a quarter of respondents identifying as centre-left or hard-left, the Labour Party achieved their worst electoral result in school memory, with Johan Nerlov getting just 12 out of over 500 votes. Many of the centre-left voters were (presumably) soaked up by Kit Mannix, representing the Liberal Democrats. He was, however, unable to capitalise on this and secure victory, with Conservative James Gibson winning by three votes. The posters from right wing parties - in particular, those from the Brexit Party, represented by Tristan Tonks and Charles Maddison - were much more prolific than those from the left and centre, perhaps contributing to their victory. Another success was getting more students from St Helen’s involved. Students such as Katy Biggs-Williams spoke in debates such as “THW limit passengers to one return flight per year” alongside George Carver, and swept the floor in our Valentine’s Day debate (“THW date your political opposite”) alongside Jonathan Ferry, against myself and Jake de Jongh. We also collaborated with St Helen’s in their own General Election; of the ten candidates, a Conservative and the two Brexit Party representatives were Abingdonians. I’m proud of how we’ve involved the Debating Society more in the community this year, and am glad of the legacy we leave for the Lower Sixth to build on. Lancelot Wilson, 7DTP