NOTES FROM THE WORKSHOP

Types of debates

British parliamentary
Asian parliamentary debate debate

Features of Asian parliamentary debate:

 There two opposing teams in an Asians format of debate:

Government side- proposes and defends the motion;
Opposition side- refute and negates the motion.
 There are three motions (teams can mutually decide what motion they want to debate on)
 The Members of the government side are the following:
Prime minister (PM)- first speaker of the debate, defines the motion and advances
arguments
Deputy prime Minister(DPM)- refute at first instance the case of the opposition and
advances arguments;
Government whip (GW)- makes an issue-based rebuttal of the opposition’s case and
summarizes the case of the government.
 The Members of the Opposition side are the following:
Leader of the Opposition(LO)- responds directly to the case of the government by giving
a direct clash, and advances arguments.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition(DPL)- refutes the case of the DPM and advances an
argument;
Opposition Whip (OW)- makes an issue based rebuttal and concludes the case of the
opposition.
 A seven minutes speaking time is allotted to each speaker.

Features of British parliamentary debate:

 There are two sides opposition and proposition.

 Each side is divided into two pairs, creating four teams:
i.) Opening proposition: Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister
ii.) Opening opposition: Leader of Opposition and Deputy leader of Opposition
iii.) Closing Proposition: Member of government and government whip
iv.) Closing opposition: Member of Opposition and opposition whip
 Before the debate begins both the teams are given a 15 minutes preparation time.
 Each speaker typically speaks for 5-7 minutes.
 Points of information are prohibited during the first and last minute of the speech, although
the opposing teams can raise one during the remaining speech.