Oxford Union Debate

Final vote was: Ayes – 72, Noes – 256.
Check out this hilarious report on the debate:

Under the watchful eye of Dave Green from NTK, several of us met up in the Lamb & Flag before the debate, and trooped in together. Impressively, we had about as many members as non, so getting everyone in wasn’t nearly as tough as we’d expected it to be. Since we arrived about 8pm, we sat through a rather confusing debate, where it seemed that neither the (very quiet) chair or the speakers quite knew which side they were arguing for… Then, about 8:40 the speakers for the main debate wandered in.

The proposition had Nick Pacheco (Christchurch College), Hilary Rosen (RIAA), Chris Wright (Chrysalls) and Jay Berman (IFPI). The opposition had Will Harris (Keble College), Nick King (Nielsen Entertainment), Doug D’Arcy (Chrysalls) and Ronnie Gurr (various). (A few union members also spoke for both sides during the floor debate.)

I won’t endeavour to recount the entire debate, just some of my thoughts on it and what I thought were some of the highlights. The Union made a video recording of the entire thing, which may or may not eventually get put online (you could try asking the Union President, David Watson about it, I suspect the more requests they get the more like it is to get online). Dave Green also made a tape recording of the event, that will probably make it online soonish, provided the quality is good enough.