The Debating Society hosted their first guest speaker debate on nuclear energy this Tuesday. The event was chaired by Ciaran Prendeville, who recently won ‘best speaker’ at the last inter-university competition. The society adopted the stance that the UK should abandon its nuclear arsenal. Guest speakers included Eric Grove, a Professor at the Centre for International Security at Salford University; and not surprisingly, due to the topic of debate, Jackie Burke, a regional development officer for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). There was, however, one difference to the usual style of debate in that there were no POI’s (points of interest) where the audience or the opponent is allowed to interrupt the debate and make a challenge.
Burke started with the mission statement of the CND; basically that the UK has failed to comply to the 1968 Non-proliferation treaty. The CND campaign against this was recently stepped up due to the “hush hush” bill to replace trident - she claimed at a cost of 76 billion - that had been pushed through the commons. The audience was on the verge of confusion whilst she argued that the production of the new weapons would reduce employment. However, she brought the game back when she explained this was down to an increased use of machinery. The conclusion to her opening speech started to tug at the heart strings of the audience using media intense rhetoric like ‘weapons of mass destruction’. She talked about the bombs being eight times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and suggested that the new nuclear program could stimulate a nuclear arms race.
