Last Friday saw five Oakhamians compete in the regional phase of the John Stuart Mill Ethics Cup. The pupils had dedicated roughly two months in preparation for the competition, familiarising themselves with several ‘Case Sets, debating the morality of a broad range of issues, from ‘what are the potential benefits of selecting political candidates rather than electing them’ to ‘should the opt-in system for plastic straws be replaced by an opt-out system?’.
Due to Covid, the competition was held online, with two schools joining an online lobby that was supervised by three judges. Oakham had two initial fixtures in their group matches. Oakham’s first match sought them to tackle the issue of Youth Quotas. Oakham argued the issue well, and were confident in their response to opposition rebuttals, resulting in a win by unanimous decision from all three judges.
Following their initial victory, the second match followed soon after. This was a much tighter contest and whilst Oakham argued well surrounding the topic of Anti-Natalism, they narrowly lost 2 judges votes to 1.
This result meant that Oakham, sadly, did not qualify for the semi-finals. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic effort all-round from the pupils and Oakham will hope to go one further next year!
