JSM Mace - English Champions

This article was published on Wednesday 1 December 2010

The team, featuring Doug Cochran and Maria English, defeated Oxford (represented by Will Jones and Can Okar), LSE (John Ashborne and Anser Aftab) and a second Cambridge Team (Jack Watson and Harish Natarajan) in a closely contested final on the motion 'This house believes that in British general elections voters should be asked to articulate a preferred coalition partner or partners for their chosen party in the event of a hung parliament, which would not be binding, but which would be published'.

The Mace weekend started with 60 teams, who took part in five rounds of debating before the semi finalists were chosen.

Debate motions ranged from invading Iran to protecting the private lives of politicians families, and were set by the adjudication team, World University Debating , and European University Debating Champion James Dray (Oxford University) twice top ten World University Debating speaker Tim Mooney (Sydney University) and World Debating Championships best speaker Sam Block (Manchester University).

The preliminary rounds of the competition were held this year at Pimlico Academy, to allow for the expansion of competition.

This is the second year in a row Cambridge, and Doug Cochran, have won the English Mace. He and Maria will go on to compete in the International Mace final against the winners of the Welsh, Scottish and Irish Mace, which will be held in Dublin on 30 April 2011.