Role Fulfilment

“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) Closing Government (CG) Opening Opposition (OO) Closing Opposition (CO) 1.Prime Minister 3. Deputy Prime Minister 5. Member of Government (MG) 7. Government Whip (GW) 6. Member of Opposition (MO) 8. Opposition Whip (OW) 2. Leader of Opposition (LO) 4. Deputy Leader of Opposition (DLO) TOP HALF BOTTOM HALF

Opening Government (OG) 1. Prime Minister -Set up the debate i.e. definitions, mechanism, criteria. -Problem, mechanism/solution, why it works. -Two of the most important arguments and an additional argument. 3. Deputy Prime Minister -Respond to Leader of Opposition’s arguments. -Defend PM’s arguments against LO’s refutations. -One key NEW argument. -A further argument (stakeholder analysis).

Opening Opposition (OO) 2. Leader of Opposition -Respond directly to Prime Minister’s arguments. -Set up team-line/principle. -Three arguments. 4. Deputy Leader of Opposition -Respond to Deputy Prime Minister’s arguments. -Defend LO’s arguments against DPM’s refutations. -Provide two or three new arguments.

Closing Government (CG) 5. Member of Government (Extension Speaker) -Refute OO (especially DLO’s arguments) -Make two/three 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 debate, explaining why Government won BUT emphasising in particular the arguments you brought in CG. -Structure: clash points

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) -Defend MO’s extension against GW’s rebuttal. -Summarise debate, emphasising MO’s extension as being key to it being won by Opposition.

Points of Information A short (15 second maximum) interjection from a speaker on the opposite bench The person speaking is expected to respond directly to the POI if possible The person speaking always has the right to decline a POI Should accept at least 1 – but too many will get in the way of your speech