House of Lords

02 Dec House of Lords

On Friday 25^th November eight students from Years 8, 9 and 10 went to a Youth Democracy debate in the House of Lords hosted by the English Speaking Union. The debate was chaired by the Speaker of the House, Lord Faulkner and the rules and protocols of Parliament were followed. The debate was televised on Parliament TV and students were commended for their behaviour and contributions.

“Last week I found out that I had the chance to go to the House Of Lords and watch a debate where the question was: “Should there be limits to Free Speech in Britain?”. The debate was set up excellently by the English Speaking Union. I enjoyed the debate as many people put forward their opinion to let everybody else hear the opinion. However, despite me liking a fully open debate where you are not prepared with a script beforehand, this system is interesting as well. I also think it was a crucial debate as it concerns the future of each country, and I was interested in what the other people in the chamber had to say. I only hoped that I would get chosen to say my view in the floor debate”. – Silviu Ionescu (9A)

“Last week, I was given the opportunity to attend and participate in a youth debate held in the House of Lords. The question proposed was whether ‘free speech’ should be limited in the UK. No matter what opinion the tens of people, including myself, harboured before walking into the House of Lords, we all walked out astonished by the power of words and the results of growing up with free speech. I had the privilege to hear young people from all over the United Kingdom speak out about their rights and responsibilities. It was a very enlightening evening”. – Anmona Siddaqua 10H

“Last Monday I was fortunate enough to go to the House of Lords to watch a debate. This was about free speech and the question was “Should there be limits on free speech in Britain”. It was run by the English Speaking Union. The debate was quite long, especially the floor debate, as it was over an hour. During this time, it was fun to listen to other people’s arguments because it helped us to understand the debate more. There were three sides of the argument: Freedom of speech should have no limits, freedom of speech should be monitored, and freedom of speech should be censored. I started off thinking that speech should be monitored, however, I now believe that it should have no limits because Britain is known for its democracy, and although some views may be hurtful, humans have a right of freedom of expression. My favourite speaker in the debate was the opening speaker for proposition 2. I had fun because it was good to witness a formal debate and it was a good experience for us to learn about what a debate in the House of Lords is like”. – Bridget Aryee-Brown 8E

Ms Lynch

Second in Student Development