This week we turned to the complexities of legal strikes - with criminal barristers opposing cuts and the state of the legal aid budget.
It was great to see the group so engaged with such a difficult topic.
Both Junior and Senior groups saw the merits of the strikes with cuts, the 'cab-rank rule', and the rise in the cost of living and transport. Yet equally the groups saw the problems that strikes would bring, with further delays to court cases and increasing the already significant backlog.
Voting: The Senior group was evenly split on strikes, whilst the Junior session saw a majority in favour to start, which switched to 67% against the motion in the second telling.
We then followed the legal strikes with the motion:
'This House would ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030'.
Voting: The Junior group passed the motion by 78% in the first vote; and unanimously in the second telling.
The Senior group also voted unanimously in favour of the motion.
Whilst the timeframe was seen as ambitious (with the EU setting the date as 2035) it was also seen as necessary to guarantee change. The problems of climate change trumped the lack of infrastructure in terms of charge points and recyclable batteries.
The Senior group also covered briefly whether this House would prefer a republic to a monarchy and was split evenly; and the motion 'This House believes that Guns protect people more than they harm people'? This was rejected unanimously. The group felt that legislation and changes were desperately needed to reform USA laws and to avoid the repeat of yet more school shooting tragedies.
Throughout the sessions, our main focus was to see the group add evidence in support of their arguments.
It was great to see this take place both in our discussion round table as well as in the breakout rooms and in the formal set piece debates.
Well done all!
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