With it being the first political debate of the new academic year, a high turnout greeted the 5 Presidents of the main political societies on campus for the cross-party debate. Exeposé Comment were at the event to deliver a report on the current state of the student political societies.
The first issue up for discussion was a previously agreed upon question concerning the economy: “Is the government cutting too much?”
President of the Freedom Society Liam Taylor began by asking where the cuts actually were; he claimed that this government’s ‘Right to Buy’ housing scheme would be detrimental to the economy, adding that these were the sort of schemes that had gotten us into the mess we are in now. President of Exeter Labour Students Dan Richards argued that borrowing has gone up under this government and the right can’t just keep blaming Labour for the situation today, pointing out that borrowing is forecast to be higher in the five years of this government than the whole 13 years under the previous regime. Harry Chamberlain, President of Exeter Conservative Future thought that the government had the balance of cuts about right but suggested that any more could potentially harm the recovery. Alex Whattam, President of Exeter Student Liberal Democrats seemed to imply that the cuts couldn’t be blamed for the poor economic performance – instead citing the problems in the Eurozone and that 51% of our exports are to EU countries. Carlus Hudson, co-President of Exeter Socialist Students began in rather a stereotypical fashion, quoting Karl Marx, much to the amusement of the audience. He went on to say that the problems we have today can be traced right back as far as 20-30 years ago and also agreed with Taylor that the ‘Right to buy’ scheme would do more harm than good.
Photo Credit: Niklas Rahmel.
Early on, it was evident that all members of the panel were a bit nervous, which is understandable given the size of the audience. The situation was certainly not helped by the background discussions taking place in the audience and the numerous unhelpful and unintelligent heckles from the back of the room.
Harry Chamberlain came across as calm and unflustered throughout the debate without landing any major political blows. He appeared to be at his best when discussing the current state of the NHS – when presented with a suggestion that halving doctors pay could double the amount of doctors available, he rightfully pointed out that in order to attract high quality people, a higher salary is needed. After blaming Labour for borrowing too much in the good times, Chamberlain was left in a bit of a pickle when it was pointed out to him that the Conservatives had backed Labour’s spending plans right up until the beginning of the recession.
Carlus Hudson was one of the more engaging members of the panel, providing some conflict into an otherwise quite friendly debate. Despite being perhaps a little over the top on the rhetoric and the clichés, there is no doubt that he made some very interesting points. He launched a scathing attack of the European Union where he claimed the EU only serves the capitalist interests of big business and fails to act in the interest of the European population.
Representing Exeter Labour Students, Dan Richards was up against the wall with most of the panel disagreeing with him on most of the issues – it’s not easy being left-wing in Exeter! On the economy, he all but admitted that Ed Balls had been wrong and that austerity has worked. He gave a staunch defence of Labour’s time in government, rightfully pointing out that the economy was growing when Labour left office in 2010 and that borrowing is forecasted to rise more under this government than in the entire time under Labour. The fact that this point is correct but was greeted with vicious laughter from a hostile audience summed up his afternoon.
Nick Best, who attended the debate, said that, “The socialists and freedom representatives stood out. It’s surprising how much they had in common and agreed upon. I enjoyed the lively audience participation at times too. There are lots of freedom lovers around!”
Throughout the debate, Liam Taylor came across as being comfortable in his line of argument. He’d obviously done his research, presenting numerous facts and figures to try and prove his points. The “Liam mentions a Scandinavian country” tally stood at a disappointing 4 for this debate. He did have the advantage of not being tied to a major political party, enabling him to have more flexibility in his views. The proposals were great, but their pragmatism is another issue.
Photo Credit: narice28 via Compfight cc and Liam Taylor.
President of Exeter Liberal Youth Alex Whattam had the most challenging afternoon out of the panel. It was always going to be a tough ask with his party in dire straits polling just 9% nationally in a recent YouGov poll. In true Lib Dem style, he sat on the fence on a number of the key issues such as the economy, health and foreign aid. Rather bizarrely, he left Dan Richards stranded on the issue of Europe, saying that it wouldn’t be that bad if Britain left and that we should have had a referendum sooner! Unfortunately Alex looked underprepared for the debate as arguably the most inexperienced member of the panel concerning this type of event.
On some issues, there was a widespread consensus across the panel; when it came to discussing Syria all five panelists believed that not pressing ahead with military action was the right thing to have happened and that a diplomatic solution would be preferable and was now a distinct possibility. Rather curiously, as much as they would hate to admit it, Carlus Hudson of SocStu and Liam Taylor found themselves largely in agreement on a number of issues, such as the European Union, the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme and foreign aid.
An honourable mention should also go to Ellie Binks, who chaired the event. She made a good effort at establishing a level and tolerant forum for discussion and made some important decisions regarding the length of some panelists’ responses, some of which were even acknowledged. Hopefully this event will set a precedent for the year in terms of open-forum debate between members of all student political societies.
Dave Reynolds and James Bennett, Online Comment Editors.
Did you attend the cross-party debate? Did you see it differently from our analysis? If so, leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group or on Twitter @CommentExepose.
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