A United States of Europe?

It was Winston Churchill who first suggested the creation of a 'United States of Europe' back in 1946. Sixty-three years on it remains a matter of debate as to whether old Winston would have approved of the modern European Union. But tomorrow we will put the question of Europe to our own members to make up their minds as to what future they want for Europe.

Do they want a UKIP-supported withdrawal from the EU or a Liberal Democrat federal European superstate? Representatives of the five main European parties will pitch their visions for the future of Europe and answer questions on the economy, the Lisbon Treaty and much more in a Heaton Manor Union Society event tomorrow.

James Bartle MYP will represent the Conservatives, David Shepherd the Green Party, Saskia Neibig is representing UKIP, David Larke Labour and Thomas Knight will speak for the Liberal Democrats. All five will take questions from the floor in a Question Time style debate ahead of next months European Parliament elections on June 4th.

Adam Thompson will take the chair (no votes of confidence, we promise!) and everyone is welcome to attend and cast their vote in our mock European election.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Union Society. James hasn't been on here for a while, but we'll have a talk after Easter and hopefully this will be regular again. Understandably, James is very busy with GCSE revision at present so someone else may take over for a short period. In the meantime, have a fab holiday.

James' Easter message will become available on Good Friday, whilst the termly graph that shows debaters' progress is visible now. Click on it to see it in full...

A change to the previous billing

A fabulous debate today. This is just a quickie to inform blog readers that there has been a partial swap-round of the next few debates. Please visit the website, heatonmanorunion.org.uk, and click on Forthcoming debates to find out more.

Thawing the ice

Apologies for my recent absence and also for the delay in getting this week's blog post out.

If the cold doesn't scare members off, we'll hopefully be hoping to thaw the ice with a heated debate on the future of the Church of England tomorrow. The society will be considering the motion 'This House believes that the Church of England should be disestablished' at 2.45pm, H12, Heaton Manor School etc. etc.

Speaking for the proposition will be Sam Hunt, a former member of the society's competition squad who is an active campanologist at St George's CofE Church, Jesmond and will be hoping to gain extra debate experience in tomorrow's debate. Sam will be accompanied by David J Shepherd, another former competition squad member who hasn't debated for a while and will be hoping to get back in to the swing of things.

On the opposition bench is Chris Redfearn who was narrowly knocked down to fourth place following last week's debate. Chris is the leader of the school's Christian Union and who attends the evangelical Church of England establishment, Jesmond Parish Church. Accompanying Chris for their second consecutive appearance as a pair is James Bartle MYP who currently ranks at the top of the society's league and will be hoping to extend his seven point lead even further.

Tomorrow promises to be a highly intellectual and extremely interesting debate with strong teams on both sides.

A week of celebration

Two monumental moments in political history took place this week - last Tuesday, US President Barack Obama was inaugurated - the first African American in history to be bestowed with that honour - and on Friday, it was announced that On That Point...'s regular contributor James Bartle had been re-elected to the UK Youth Parliament. Everyone is thrilled at the Society, and his big work load has meant that was again unable to blog for us all this week. He even missed his first debate for months!

And, looking to this week's debate, which was on sex education, you can grab the full low-down in our newsletter The Weekly Conversation; but one piece of information you can't get from that particular publication is that whilst James maintains a healthy lead on the league table, our previous holder of second place, Chris Redfearn, has freefallen to fourth. Despite winning a relatively low proportion of his debates, David Larke now occupies the second place slot, whilst TJ is up to third. Chris will be hoping to restore himself in a debate on the Church of England next week. With a bit of luck, James'll bring you news of that in On That Point... next week.

I certainly won't be here so until the next time...bye!

New Year, new look, news!

James is taking a well-earned break from the blog this week - in the midst of examinations and feeling the pressure of awaiting the result of his recent campaign to be re-elected to the UK Youth Parliament. So this week, it's me, Laurie, in the hot seat, with the latest live news from the Heaton Manor Union Society.

If you haven't yet visited our new-look site, please do so now. You can give your opinions on this by taking part in our online survey. For the low-down on this week's debate, please see our newsletter, The Weekly Conversation.

Well, that's about it for this week! Remember, James normally posts a blog here prior to each debate. Hopefully, his quick wit will return to On That Point... next week. If not, you'll be stuck with me again! Bye!

Christmas will soon be upon us

Tuesday saw our final debate for 2008 bringing an end to our debates for the Autumn Term. Whether it's Nintendos, who should be the next US President, gay adoption or football we've covered more of a range than usual this term and a good thing that is too.

This Tuesday sees the party's Christmas get together which promises to be a lively affair complete with music (provided by Laurie Dudley), a quiz and of course sausage rolls. All members and friends of the society are welcome, the party is always a nice way to celebrate a year of debating.

Other notices worth mentioning are; a group of members will represent the society at Heaton Manor's school carol service on Thursday at Holy Trinity Church Jesmond; the Board are looking to put together a team to enter ICYD 2009, more details to come in the New Year; and finally the President's message will be published later this week and promises to be a reasoned and thoughtful reflection on the past year.

So don't forget to be good boys and girls for Santa Clause or you'll get coal this Christmas!