SWINBURNE DEBATERS’ CLUB

BRITISH
PARLIAMENTARY:
THE CORE STRATEGIES
Presented by Adrian
BEFOREHAND...

DISCLAIMER
 THIS SLIDE WILL ASSUME YOU HAVE THE
BASICS COVERED

1. You have learnt the basics of any debate styles (Asian Parliamentary, WSDC) as
well as debated in these formats before. Do not worry if you haven’t it is
practically the same with a twist.
2. You have learnt the basics of each roles. If you do have questions about this do
not hesitate to ask me.
Disclamer

3. You have learnt the basics of how British Parliamentary works. Any rough idea of
it is fine, because I will spend less on talking about the basics.

Keep in mind, British Parliamentary debates do not have any sort of strategies that
you must strictly follow. Be adaptive in each rounds.
FLOW OF THE DEBATE

BRITISH
PARLIAMENTARY
 BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY
SHORT SUMMARY
Flow of the debate

A generic BP debate should be:

2v2v2v2
There are opening bench, and closing bench. Each teams will NOT prepare their
speeches together, even if they are in the same side
15 minutes of preparation time, with 7 minutes of speech for each speakers

In the start of the debate, it will begin from the 1st Proposition Speaker and follows a
zig-zag pattern until the Opposition Whip.

This debating style requires a 1st Member of Each Side (Pseudo-1st and 2nd
Speaker Role)
 BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY
SHORT SUMMARY
Flow of the debate

1ST 1ST
PROPOSITION OPPOSITION
Opening Opening
Prop Opp
2ND 2ND
PROPOSITION OPPOSITION

1ST MEMBER 1ST MEMBER

OF PROP OF OPP

Closing Closing
Prop Opp
PROPOSITION OPPOSITION
WHIP WHIP
WHAT TO DO?

OPENING HALF
 1ST SPEAKER
WHAT TO DO?
1st Proposition:
Identify what the debate is about
Explain your case:
Issue - What is the problem?
Opening Half

Stance - What is your burden? Then explain how to solve it in your

argumentations.
Characterisation - Explain the situation in the debate.
Argumentation
Claim
Framing
1st Layer - Truth (How true is it?)
2nd Layer - Significance (Why is it true?)
3rd Layer - Impact (How could it affect the metrics in the debate?)
Tie-back (How could it relate to your case)
 1ST SPEAKER
WHAT TO DO?
1st Opposition
Identify what the debate is about
Explain your case:
Issue - What is the problem?
Opening Half

Stance - Prove why you want to oppose (Is the problem substantial? Is Proposition going
to solve it?)
Characterisation - Explain the situation in the debate under the context of the Opposition
Rebuttal
Attack the weakest points of Proposition‘s case (Prioritise one major case flaw)
Argumentation
Claim
Framing
1st Layer - Truth (How true is it?)
2nd Layer - Significance (Why is it true?)
3rd Layer - Impact (How could it affect the metrics in the debate?)
Tie-back (How could it relate to your case)
 2ND SPEAKER
WHAT TO DO?
2nd Proposition:
You will focus on rebuilding/restructuring your case:
Give out new matter and analysis (ie. arguments).
Engage often on the remarks of 1st Opposition
Opening Half

This could be done via rebuttals, but could be structured under your
argumentation.
Do a lot of important weighing
Tell us why your case outweighs the importance of Opening Opposition’s case
and the case of the entire Closing Half.

Remember!
You are technically the hybrid of 2nd Speaker and 3rd Speaker/Whip. You have to
divide time to do case building and case summarisation.
 2ND SPEAKER
WHAT TO DO?
2nd Opposition:
You will focus on rebuilding/restructuring your case:
Give out new matter and analysis (ie. arguments).
Engage often on the remarks of Opening Proposition
Opening Half

This could be done via rebuttals, but could be structured under your
argumentation.
Do a lot of important weighing
Tell us why your case outweighs the importance of Opening Proposition’s case
and the case of the entire Closing Half.

Remember!
You are the LAST SPEAKER OF OPENING HALF! Conclude as much as you can and
make it biased towards your side.
WHAT TO DO?

CLOSING HALF
 1ST MEMBER
WHAT TO DO?
1st Member of Both Sides:
Start with an overview:
Explain what are you going to do - Give a bit more insight into certain matters that
are relevant in the debate.
Make sure to add on some setups - In the case there are some characterisation that
Closing Half

has not been done, and is related to your speech, extend the characterisation of your
opening’s case.
Extensions
Please give some extensions
Add on new things to tackle - Imagine it as your new arguments (because
technically, extensions are the only way you can do arguments in BP, especially
the Closing Half)
Respond (aka. Rebuttals)
Just make sure you engage as much as possible with other cases/arguments/framing/
etc.
 3RD SPEAKER
WHAT TO DO?
3rd Speaker of Both Sides:
Summarise the debate
What has the debate boiled down to? What are the comparatives offered
between both sides?
Give justification on why your side AND your bench matters
Closing Half

Please do A LOT OF WEIGHING! You are the last knight to defend the
stronghold, that is your case.
Engage a lot, by all means, just engage!
Tackle down all premises given by Opening Opponents until your Closing
Opponents - Give justifications on why their premise cannot stand

TL;DR - You are just doing the same thing like other Debate Styles, but just on
steroids
 EXTENSIONS
WHAT IS IT?
This part is, without a doubt, the most salient thing in your speech (for 1st Members).
Extension
A new contribution of materials (unique to closing side) given by closing bench, to
bring forward as one of the important thing in the debate.
It can be a radical-analysed new materials, because you want it to be relevant
Closing Half

A new substantive, but is related to the opening case.

Try not to give an extension that is NOT RELATED TO THE OPENING CASE! You
will have an UNLIKELY CHANCE TO OUTWEIGH any other premises.
Why do we must have an extension?
Just to bring in a new light into the debate; give more things to engage on especially
in CLOSING HALF!
Due to Closing inability to present an outright a new case* to throw-out their
opening bench , this new substantive will bring the debate into yet another view
of the issue.
 EXTENSIONS
WHAT IS IT?
There are two types of extention:
Vertical Extension
Horizontal Extension
Closing Half
 EXTENSIONS
VERTICAL EXTENSION
What exactly is a ‘vertical extension’?
An extension that does not explore other ideas; straight-up just analyse what the
opening said, and add on to their framing.
Other than that, there are some important analysis that is left out by opening,
so you add it into their framing.
Closing Half

Benefit:
You can rank higher than your opening bench; since you give a more relevant
analysis. This pushes you to the line of relevance even better
Harms:
If, in the scenario that it has been severely rebutted (literally no ashes left),
then this analysis will not lead to a higher placement in the debate.
Sure, you can outrank your opening, but if your bench loses, then at best you
will get 3rd Placement
 EXTENSIONS
HORIZONTAL EXTENSION
What exactly is a ‘horizontal extension’?
An extension that explores other ideas (just a fancy term for new arguments)
Benefits:
Your idea is definitely new. That adds on into the potency of your bench’s case
It requires your closing opponent to refute this newly explored idea. This will
Closing Half

waste their time as well give them little room to give out their ideas as well
Harms:
Well, due to the very nature of this idea being new, you must allocate a lot of
time to prove why does it matter in the debate. Unlike the opening bench, you
do have a lot of time with the amount of tasks you must do
In the case you failed to prove why does it matter, then it will have a low
impact in the debate as a whole; significantly tanking your relevance as well
as the chance to rake up bench win.
 EXTENSIONS
WHEN TO USE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL EXTENSIONS?
Use Vertical Extension When: Use Horizontal Extension When:
There is a huge claim-framing lacking Your opening has left you some space
from opening bench. to argue for the benefit of their case
Your opening deprived you of any new (TL;DR they’ve used deep dive
arguments/materials. analysis)
Closing Half

You have no idea what is going on in Your opening has missed out
the debate, so you hitchhiked your something important in their case; not
Opening Case. their CLAIM-FRAMING!
The debate requires a more “out-of-
the-box” approach
THE GIST OF BP

STRATEGIES
 OPENING HALF
CASE PREPARATION
What are you going to expect?
In most debates, you are given a lot of time to prepare your speech (eg. case
prep). However, in BP, you have only 15 minutes!

IT IS NOT THE END OF TIME!

Strategies

It is like your usual prep time, just shorter :D

 OPENING HALF
CASE PREPARATION
When you are preparing your case, ask yourself these questions:
What is the most relevant thing to show in this debate?
There are a lot of things that relates to a motion
NARROW IT DOWN - Do not waste your time talking about something that is
not even close to be relevant.
PAINT YOUR CANVAS - Characterise the things you want to talk about in-
depth. If we are not clear about it, it is a problem.
Strategies

Who are the stakeholders?

Anything can be a stakeholder
Are they related to the issue?
Do an analysis. Is this stakeholder you’ve chosen is the right one? How
does it relate to your issue?
DO NOT TAKE A LOT OF STAKEHOLDERS
Just pick at most two, and explain why they are the most relevant in the
debate.
 OPENING HALF
CASE PREPARATION
There are two ways you can do to get an idea on what to debate:
Matter Dumping
Deep-Dive Analysis
Strategies
 OPENING HALF
MATTER DUMPING
Matter Dumping - Self-explanatory; you try to run as many points you could possibly
think of
Useful in a scenario when the motion has little arguments to argue about
Benefits:
Cut-out any possible extension for closing
This can create closing half of the debate to run low in things to talk about
Strategies

It is useful to cancel out strong opponents that are in your closing bench
Harms
You are not being too detailed
Since you just skimmed through these points, you did not have enough
time allocation to do framing.
Your opponent can straight up, refute your framing and win the debate
there and then.
 OPENING HALF
DEEP-DIVE ANALYSIS
Deep-Dive Analysis - Self-explanatory; you have pinpointed what to talk about and do
intense framing.
Useful in scenarios when the motion requires a lot of framing and there are too many
arguments so you have to narrow it down
Benefits:
Opponents have a hard time to refute
Since your framing is detailed, the opponents will take their time to analyse it.
Strategies

Your closing will also have a hard time to beat you with that framing, so they
have to go horizontal.
Harms
A shaky foundation
So let’s say, your framing has been rebutted well. The relevancy of that
framing might be out-weighed.
When an adjudicator does their weighing on whose case matters the most,
you might lose it.
 OPENING HALF
FOR 1ST SPEAKERS
Case Setup - Your entire life depends on it
Allocate majority of your time here.
Give out as much context/framing about the motion. Make sure it is relevant.
Why does the issue exist?
Framing
The most important part of anything you do
Strategies

It explains why the motion being debated in a specific way and certain
stakeholders related to it)
Arguments
Just like any other debate styles, make your claims like usual.
But you need to think of a way to make the argument relevant in the whole
debate.
 OPENING HALF
FOR 2ND SPEAKERS
Most of the time, you will just add in more analysis and materials into your case to
strengthen it. However, there are many approaches you can use:
Simp - Just defend, weigh and give analysis into the impacts of your PM/LO
materials.
Use only when you have nothing else to say (at this stage, this should not
happen), OR your case is in danger.
Strategies

Matter Dumping - Add in a lot of new materials.

Use only when you are sure your PM/LO has absolutely perish the
opponents to dust since your new target is the closing bench.
Rebuttals - Weaken the opponent’s case
Use only when you feel like the case is in danger and you only can attack, OR
you have a decent case and your opponent is a threat.
But by all means, DO REBUTTALS.
 OPENING HALF
FOR 2ND SPEAKERS
These are some general tips that should help you:
There are two kinds of speech you can make; “Clash-by-Clash” or “Rebuttals-
Extension”. Depends on the debate, you can be flexible to choose either of them.
Remember, you are the LAST SPEAKER OF OPENING HALF! Use this to your
advantage (ie. solidify your position, rebuild your case, respond to your opponent,
and most importantly, FRAMING WEIGHING)
Strategies

Just keep in mind, your main goal is to clear up the OPENING HALF of the
debate. Clarify why:
Your case is better than your opponents’, even at your worst.
Intense weighing to justify issue given and the solutions offered.

TL;DR - You are a hybrid of 2nd Speaker and Whip Speaker.

 OPENING HALF
HOW TO WIN FROM THE OPENING HALF?
Proposition: Opposition:
Do not complicate the analysis - Just Clash against Opening Proposition as
give a well-analysed, straight-to-the- much as you can - This is to ensure you
point framing. can tackle their premises and claims
Make sure everything is proven - This Give a case that has an issue and its
will make your case more covered from own solutions
incoming rebuttals towards your side Often, most debaters just disagree
Strategies

Try to be as relevant as possible - Make with the case given by Prop without
sure the framing you have done can last giving their issue/solution.
until the OW speech. (The key of winning Make sure you have an issue that
higher ranking is how relevant is your weighs more and a solution that
speech still) weighs more
Do not be greedy - Do not choke your Do not be greedy - Just like the previous
closing bench a lot; leave some point in Prop/Govt, leave some space for
extension for them as well. closing bench.
 CLOSING HALF
OH BOY, WHERE DO I START?
There are A LOT OF THINGS to cover:
How to do Closing (General)?
Re:Extension
1st Member Speeches
Whip Speeches
How to win from Closing Half?
Strategies

Do note, some of it are bound to be similar to what I have explained before. Please
bear with me because this part is the hardest to explain in simpler terms.
 CLOSING HALF
HOW TO DO CLOSING?
Just think about how can you absolutely roast the opponents, just like how Gordon
Ramsay roast the living hell out of his chefs? You need to be really careful in your
analysis just so you can L + Ratio the whole floor.
What should you aim to do?
New arguments or shift the focus of the debate elsewhere while maintaining
relevance
Strategies

Arguments that can relate to clashes of the debate

How to do that?
Create a new framing under the stance of your opening case
Analyse what is your opening opponent’s main flaw
Analyse what is your opening bench’s arguments and highlight its importance
Bring in a whole other level of rebuttals
 CLOSING HALF
HOW TO DO CLOSING?
Prep Time!
Unlike your opening bench, you have no idea what you are bound to do. However, you
still can prep like this:
Just imagine you are opening for a moment. List down anything that you think they
will say.
From there, you can figure out what is the main issue of the debate and how we
are to solve it
Strategies

However, the chances of the opening to mention it is dependable on the debaters

you are against with (eg. the good ones, they know what they are doing)
So, in the case they did not run it the way the debate is supposed to (eg.
squirelled motion), this is the perfect opportunity to slowly dump your opening
However, if they ran it like how you want it to be, then you will do the next step.
 CLOSING HALF
HOW TO DO CLOSING?
Prep Time!
Unlike your opening bench, you have no idea what you are bound to do. However, you
still can prep like this:
Think outside of the box
Analyse what is potentially might be left out by your opening because they are
pressured to deliver the important bits
The less obvious it is, the better it gets. However, try to make it relevant to the
Strategies

case as possible.
Single-out all of the ideas you have
In the debate, your opening might have said one or two ideas that you’ve planned
to talk about
Cross them out and try to find other ideas that are left. Figure out which are more
relevant than others
 CLOSING HALF
HOW TO DO CLOSING?
Prep Time!
Unlike your opening bench, you have no idea what you are bound to do. However, you
still can prep like this:
Strategize on how you are going to give out your speech.
Different teams have their own approach and way of speech delivery.
Your role now is how can you approach them differently with your arguments
Keep this mindset: You must win this half. Do proper framing, and justify your
Strategies

speech.
Do not write down your speech like an essay
Just write down potential keywords to talk about. The ideas, the whats and hows
and whys.
Point form is better (more efficient xd)
 CLOSING HALF
RE:EXTENSION
Previously, we have learnt the two types of extension; vertical extension and horizontal
extension. However, how can you fully utilise it?
Filling in the gaps
Let us say, the opening did their best to deliver their case but they’ve missed out
in a lot of case-framing
Your role, as the closing half, is to patch up as much pothole as possible
Patch the MOST RELEVANT FRAMING they have missed, do not waste your time
Strategies

patching all of it. Remember, you need to allocate time for other things in your
speech.
However, make sure you do a good job at it. Otherwise, you will be severely
tanked for blabbering nothing
 CLOSING HALF
RE:EXTENSION
Previously, we have learnt the two types of extension; vertical extension and horizontal
extension. However, how can you fully utilise it?
New Ideas, New Framing, New Standings
Now that the round is currently an average debate, your opening has tackled
what must be said in their speeches of the opening half
Now your role, to open up closing half of the debate, is to maintain diplomatic ties
with your opening and try to add on something new
Strategies

New ideas are great to approach something that makes absolutely no sense, but
if you frame it well, actually does relate to the debate
In this case, you will have something that is absolutely never been touched before
by anyone, while maintaining relevance throughout the debate
This is the toughest part to pull off especially if your opening is GOATED with their
speech
But do a ton of analysis regarding their speech, you will do fine
 CLOSING HALF
RE:EXTENSION
Previously, we have learnt the two types of extension; vertical extension and horizontal
extension. However, how can you fully utilise it?
Be responsive
Just, straight up disrespect them
This is good for you to knock out YOUR OPENING and OPPONENT SIDE
You give your framing on why each and every other team will not win the debate
HOWEVER, this comes with a risk. Since you will not give any substantive
Strategies

contribution at all, you might not win over your opening even. Other than that,
most adjudicators do not acknowledge this as an “extension”. So, pray that the
room you are in has a good adjudicator.
So if you are to wake up and decided to create the massive havoc in a debate
tourney, here you go
Unironically, this is a good way to win most in knockout rounds. Not that I’m
encouraging it since it is a foul play, but it will be funny.
 CLOSING HALF
1ST MEMBER SPEECHES
They are the most hardest role to pick, as their burden to win for the bench is high.
There are a few way to can get better at being first:
Prioritise giving extensions
This is the one and only thing special about your speech. Since you cannot
really do much with your opening case if it is debatable, you must roll with it
and hope for the best.
Strategies

These extensions provide massive help for closing half because they will
provide a new insight about the debate; other issues that may arise if
solutions given by opening does not work based on YOUR ANALYSIS of their
CASE-FRAMING
However, just because extensions are important doesn’t mean you must do
ONLY extension. Allocate some time to give an overview of what the opening
half have talked about and what will be new under your speech.
 CLOSING HALF
1ST MEMBER SPEECHES
They are the most hardest role to pick, as their burden to win for the bench is high.
There are a few way to can get better at being first:
Assess the debate
Just like what the previous point have mentioned, give a brief summary of
what the opening has done to mitigate the issue
This will give an even better view into what the opening has offered and how
Strategies

VASTLY different is yours

This is also a golden opportunity for you to figure out what was missing that is
supposed to be carried earlier in the debate session.
From there, you can clarify the mistakes of opening bench and clear up any
mass confusion
 CLOSING HALF
1ST MEMBER SPEECHES
They are the most hardest role to pick, as their burden to win for the bench is high.
There are a few way to can get better at being first:
Respond meticulously
Choose what you want to respond. Not everything must be covered under you,
as your whip speaker will summarise everything anyways.
Choose AT MOST TWO CLAIMS that you want to respond against. Allocate
Strategies

your time well since, ya’know, you have more to talk about.
Make sure the claims you are about to respond MATTERS THE MOST IN
OPPONENT SIDE. Do not bring over something useless that will not tackle
down the pillars of their case.
Any more claims you planned to tackle, give it to your whip to decide. What
matters most here is that YOU HAVE TACKLED THE IMPORTANT CLAIM. A lot
of new debaters made this mistake often.
 CLOSING HALF
1ST MEMBER SPEECHES
They are the most hardest role to pick, as their burden to win for the bench is high.
There are a few way to can get better at being first:
Make sure everything links back to the opening case OR your case
Your extensions, all of its framing must have a linkage to the cases you bear
From that, you can gain control of the debate. Monopolise this power as much
as you can
Strategies

In the case your extensions do not link, then all of it will be for naught. You will
give less impact towards the stakeholders and the issue
Remember, your extensions are claims to support your case
 CLOSING HALF
3RD SPEAKER SPEECHES
The role is simple; be mean towards the opponent and summarise the debate with
the framing more biased towards yours. Well, there is that and more:
Give a lot of framing on why your side matters
Since you are summarising the whole debate, it is better for you to analyse
what is the benefits in which your side can offer
From there, compare it to the opponent’s solution. Be biased, act like it is a
Strategies

reply speech. Bring in clashes as well, since it is one of the core parts in a whip
speech.
Weighing matters here, do lots of it.
Just remember, do not spare them at all
 CLOSING HALF
3RD SPEAKER SPEECHES
The role is simple; be mean towards the opponent and summarise the debate with
the framing more biased towards yours. Well, there is that and more:
Explain why your extensions are better than your closing opponent’s
Since you are summarising the closing half of the debate (like how 2nd
speakers summarise the opening half of the debate), allocate a lot of time for
this.
Strategies

This is your one and only chance to engage on the extensions given by the
closing opponent
Respond as much as you can. Remember, the more you respond and tackle it
down, their extensions gets much weaker.
Give the impacts of both side
Despite you have done clashes on how both side will work in the same world,
make sure you emphasise on how it can impact on the stakeholders
This will give a more credible analysis to uphold your side’s relevance
 CLOSING HALF
3RD SPEAKER SPEECHES
Obviously, whip summarise the debate as a whole. However, what can you do to
strategize it?
Let us see with extension
Is it recoverable? Recover it as fast as you can, and use it to smash your
opponents
Is it unrecoverable? Try your best to add in new materials without the adjudicator
noticing it (usually by giving examples that acts as an analysis)
Strategies

Opponent does not have extension?

Rat them out! Give a simple explanation and move on. Do not waste your time on
this
Opponent too strong for your own good?
Do a lot of weighing - DO NOT BE AFRAID
The last thing that you want in your mind is to be afraid. NOT EVERYONE IS
GOATED LIKE DAVID AFRICA OR BO SEO. Even these two giants can be beaten
by intense weighing.
 CLOSING HALF
3RD SPEAKER SPEECHES
Obviously, whip summarise the debate as a whole. However, what can you do to
strategize it?
Extension wasn’t well explained?
What are you wasting your time for? Explain it ASAP! Allocate a minor bit of
your time to clarify about it.
MAKE SURE YOUR ANALYSIS DOES NOT SOUNDS NEW! You can get away
Strategies

with new matter if you know how to hide it.

Your extension/case/opening case did not or have been engaged less
No need to defend.
Just tell the adjudicator why is it unengaged (pssst! Tell them the opponent’s
solution is bad and they have known since the start)
This is the golden opportunity to spend your time on rebuttals!
 CLOSING HALF
HOW TO WIN FROM THE CLOSING HALF
A really good allocation of resources
You have 14 minutes combined. Spread out what is the most important to be
engaged, and explain.
It is scenario-driven (context: not all debates are good debates)
Do not be egoistic
Just because you are the best debater in that room, doesn’t mean you can
Strategies

slack off
Act like it is the most important debate of your life
Do not come up and OPENLY DUMP your opening bench. Like, why man?
Extensions, engage, extensions, engage. Rinse and repeat
Giving out extension and engage is the best way to maintain the relevance of
the debate
Your main goal is to be more relevant than your opening, but at the same time
to be relevant together as a side
ANY QUESTIONS?

QNA SESSION
Feel free to contact for any assistance

THANK
YOU FOR
COMING
I hope you learnt something new!