Pros and Cons - Debbie Newman, Ben Woolgar 2014

Preface

This is the nineteenth edition of Pros and Cons, replacing the last which was written in 1999. In that time, much has changed in the world: 9/11 has reshaped the debates on international relations, while the growth of the Internet has changed the complexion of many of the social issues. About a third of the topics have changed; for example ’restricting Sunday shopping’,’easier divorce’ and ’modernisation of trades unions’ have been replaced with ’social networking has improved our lives’,’banning of violent video games’ and ’torture of terrorist suspects’. With the remaining topics, some have needed little revision, but many have needed to be rewritten to reflect the world we live in. This edition has also attempted to be more international in its outlook, with the UK-specific issues in their own chapter and the other topics taking a more general approach. We hope that most of the topics here will remain relevant and largely unchanged, for a few years at least. For this reason, notable conflicts such as Israel and Palestine or Afghanistan have been omitted.

About the editorial team and acknowledgements

Debbie Newman, General Editor, is the director of The Noisy Classroom, which supports Speaking and Listening across the curriculum. She is a previous English national debating champion, president of the Cambridge Union Society and a coach for the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC). She is a former head of the Centre for Speech and Debate at the English-Speaking Union, a fellow of the World Debate Institute and a qualified secondary school teacher.

Ben Woolgar, Assistant Editor, won the World Schools Debating Championships in 2008 when he was on the England Schools Debating Team. As a student at the

University of Oxford, he won the European Universities Debating Championships, reached the Grand Final of the World Universities Debating Championships and was ranked top speaker in the world. He is currently studying law at City University.

Many of the entries here have needed minimal revision due to the thorough and thoughtful work of the editors of and contributors to the last edition: Trevor Sather, Thomas Dixon, Alastair Endersby, Dan Neidle and Bobby Webster.

Thanks are due to Steve Roberts, Director of Charitable Activities at the EnglishSpeaking Union, and his team for support with the project; and to Jason Vit who, when Head of Speech and Debate at the ESU, initiated the project. Thanks also to Paul Holleley.