Politics students attend Cambridge Union debate
On Thursday the 6th of February, students from the politics department had the pleasure of attending a debate at the Cambridge Union entitled ‘This house believes that Donald Trump is a 21st century fascist’. Prior to the actual debate beginning, the students were given a tour of the Union by current students.
The tour included a visit to see the debating hall adorned by portraits of former presidents of the Union including Lord Howard, Clare Balding and former Ely MP Lucy Frazer. Students also visited the members’ common room, the dining hall and reading rooms containing books damaged by bombing from World War II, still bearing shrapnel marks.
The first event of the evening was an emergency debate entitled ‘This house believes that Joe Biden was responsible for the election of Donald Trump’ in which the students heard impassioned debates on both sides arguing that the 2024 election was simply the result of poor policies on behalf of the Biden administration, whilst others argued, but there was nothing that could have been done to prevent the result. When a request went out from the chair for supporting or dissenting statements, first year student Olivia Ortega Le Calvez made a valid contribution regarding Joe Biden’s attempt to reduce inflation for the American people under the Inflation Reduction Act, for which she received a generous applause.
In a packed debating chamber, attention then turned to the full debate for the evening in which the majority of discussion centred around the idea that using words like fascist for Donald Trump undermines the use of the word and neglects the suffering of those from the 20th century, whilst the proposers in favour of the motion argued that the term fascist had changed and could be applied to the policies of the 47th President of the United States. At the conclusion of the debate, we were then permitted to vote by exiting through either the aye or nay lobby outside the main hall.
At one stage, prompted by the chair, members of the Union gave our students a round of applause to welcome them as future academics. The event was a valuable opportunity for our students to witness a topical debate in person as well as meet undergraduates at the university and hear first-hand about life studying at Cambridge, as well as being given a chance to ask for advice on applying to the top universities.
The students that attended were second years Edward Berridge, Lennon Wing, Lalli Southall, Grace Prasher and Volodymyr Beskid alongside first years Liza Petrychenko, Olivia Ortega Le Calvez, Emmeline Vanier, Conor Runswick, Amber Kemp, Noah Johnston, Eva King, Lois Henley, Chloe Crick, Eirinn Shrimpton, Adriano Muzzin, Ben Louch and Jasper Kyne.
