British Parliamentary

Debating

Thanks to Ionut Stefan and Eliot Pallot

4 Teams
2 speakers per time
15 minutes preparation time
5 minutes speeches
15 minutes adjudication time
15 minutes speaking time
 “Rules” of Britisth Parliamentary
• Formally all speakers in a debate are meant to
do certain things
• In real terms these are guides to having a
constructive debate and being persuasive
• Your ultimate goal is to persuade the “average
reasonable voter” of your side of the motion –
not following these rules would make that
very difficult
 Opening Government (OG) Opening Opposition (OO)

1. Prime Minister 2. Leader of Opposition (LO)

TOP HALF

3. Deputy Prime Minister 4. Deputy Leader of Opposition (DLO)

Closing Government (CG) Closing Opposition (CO)

BOTTOM HALF

5. Member of Government (MG) 6. Member of Opposition (MO)

7. Government Whip (GW) 8. Opposition Whip (OW)

 Opening Government (OG)
1. Prime Minister
- Set up the debate i.e. definitions, mechanism,
criteria.
- Problem, mechanism/solution, why it works.
- arguments

3. Deputy Prime Minister

- Respond to Leader of Opposition’s arguments.
- Defend PM’s arguments against LO’s refutations.
- Possibly new arguments
 Opening Opposition (OO)
2. Leader of Opposition
- Respond directly to Prime Minister’s arguments.
- Set up team-line/principle.
- New arguments

4. Deputy Leader of Opposition

- Respond to OGs arguments.
- Defend LO’s arguments against DPM’s refutations.
- New arguments.
 Closing Government (CG)
5. Member of Government (Extension Speaker)
- Refute OO (especially DLO’s arguments)
- Make some NEW arguments OR
- Provide FAR more detail on OG’s argument(s).

7. Government Whip (Summary Speaker)

- Respond directly to Member of Opposition’s arguments (the
only one on Gov bench who can).
- Summarise the debate
- Structure: clash points
- Not allowed to make new arguments
- Explain why CG won
 Closing Opposition (CO)
6. Member of Opposition (Extension Speaker)
- Refute Member of Government’s extension (has to be done
here and not in the summary).
- Two/three extension arguments.

8. Opposition Whip (Summary Speaker)

- Respond directly to Closing Government
- Summarise the debate
- Structure: clash points
- Not allowed to make new arguments
- Explain why CO won
How to make solid, structured
arguments
 PEEL
• Point
• Explanation
• Example
• Link
 Explanation

Solutio
Now Then
n
Structuring a speech

Don't forget about

this bit!
 So...what are you going to say?
1. How many substantive points you are going to make
2. What those points are and briefly explain why they are
important
3. Explain that you are going to do rebuttal first, and how many
points you will have
4. Do rebuttal
5. Sign-post first substantive point
6. Explain first point
7. Do the same for the rest points
8. With about 15 seconds to go, summarise what you've said
• Outline
• 1. rebuttal :
• What Opp said
• Why this is wrong
• 2. rebuttal:
• What Opp said
• Why this is wrong
• 1. Argument
• PEEL
• 2. Argument
• PEEL
• Summary  Why your arguments are more likely or
more impactful
Questions???