Will it be God save our gracious Queen or God defend our free land?
Teams New Zealand and Scotland who provided us with a simply spectacular semi-final
Result of the semi-final:
New Zealand 7 Scotland 0
England 5 Greece 2
Final tomorrow: TH would expand the permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
New Zealand proposing, England opposing.
posted by Kiwi Claire @ 2:02 am
26 Comments
26 Comments:
Go NZ!
Is anyone else sick of this stupid UN SC motion being re-invented every year? It ought to be an interesting final, given Julia (coaching NZ) won this debate from the Aff several years ago, and England lost in a controversial decision from the Neg. I wonder if the same cases are run...
Well, being the debating tragic that I am I know that that motion was 'this house believes that permanent members of the UN SC should not have veto power' which is a very different debate to expanding permanent membership of the UN SC. So i think Julia would find it hard to use the same case!
Congrats to both teams and good luck for the final! I wish i could be there to watch it!
By the way, great title Claire! I wish i could be there just to see how happy you must be!
Well done to both sides - would love to see this final.
Big congrats to New Zealand on their return.
Enjoy watching this final Clare and prepare that lovely song for the Council meeting.
Andrew K (Jordan)
Go England!
Go England........
Well done to both teams in the final, a great performance. Well done, and hard luck to Scotland and Greece, who did brilliantly to reach the semis.
Not sure on the motion - it is fairly 'done' although sometimes the classics lead to the best debates.
Now my two teams are out I'll have to revert back to where I am from... Go England!
Having been there in 2005 - the grand final decision was not "controversial". England got spanked.
Well done NZ. Good work Julia, and good luck to the NZ contingent. Wish I could be there to see the celebrations from Claire should they get up!
http://mbeeler.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!77A14877BC3DBD83!140.entry
The link doesn't matter, all that matters is that it was a close, high quality debate that will be revisited now. Backtracking in this way is unhelpful.
The only thing that can be said in response to that (interesting) Beeler blog post is that it looks like someone finally woke up and realised that style matters.
Good luck England!
Best wishes New Zealand!
What an amazing Championships this has been - full of surprises, and (despite a slightly dull motion) what's set to be a great final. By the way, am I right in thinking that NZ's performance in the prelims is an all time record? (with 23 judges?)
On the subject of that blog piece about the 2005 final - one line is totally indisputable: "You have to do it because you love it, not because you just want to win." I hope the sting of defeat for the teams missing out on the final doesn't outweigh the heights they've already achieved, the fun that they've had so far and the memories they'll take away with them.
Claire, you're blog is somewhat of an institution - thanks so much for putting the effort in, so us absentees can share in some of the excitement too.
Aled, Wales
Yes, thank you so much for this blog. It's been terrific - and let's hope that it's a great debate this afternoon. Best wishes to both sides, but here's hoping for an English win. Go England!
Many thanks, Claire, for keeping us so well informed through this blog. Well done to Scotland for their role in such a high quality semi-final, and congratulations to England and New Zealand on reaching the final.
Mike Elder
Was the Greece England Semi Final no good then? We have heard lots about how wonderful the debating has been, but hardly a mention of Greece. Is it because no one takes the unfancied teams seriously?
Having said that, well done to NZ and England.
Come on Engerland!!
I wish they could have chosen a more evenly weighted motion for the semis. I don't think I've ever seen an opp win on that one. Anyway, not to take away from the best two teams in the tourament - they obviously both deserve their places in the final so good luck to both of them, (especially New Zealand).
England won in a 5-4 decision.
Steve - it might be because Claire was at the Scotland-NZ debate. I'm sure Greece/England was equally good.
I agree. The Opp case in the semi is basically unwinnable unless the Prop knows nothing about sanctions. Terrible motion. As was the octo-final, which I don't really know is about still.
Regrettably I neither saw nor judged the Greek team throughout the championships. I diod not see their semi-final. From what I heard, they could not be described as underdogs, more accurately giant-killers. 3rd in the world is a fine result, in keeping with their Stuttgart performance in 2004and reminding everyone never to under-estimate Greece.
Where was the climate change/Kyoto topic? Done to death but at least it is more interesting than security council motions.
Perhaps the Cuba topic is intended to force the Aff to argue to lift weapon sanctions too...
It's slanted, but not unwinnable necessarily. Depending on what the Prop does it's a choice between just sanctioning/blocking really bad stuff getting in, or even tougher sanctions. I'm not defending the motion, but it's not unwinnable.
And if anyone does have a recording of the England v Greece semi final, it would be great for us to see it.
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