By Mia Vadgama (Year 10)

On Wednesday evening, Bedford Girls’ School hosted a fabulous evening of debating - the first round of the Schools Parliamentary Debating Competition, run by the Office of the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner.

The motion was proposed by the BGS Senior Debate team - Nawaal Qazi (Year 10) and Grace Briers (Year 10): With Britain now having the first Prime Minister from an ethnic minority group, this House believes we have entered a post-racial era in our politics?

Arguing against the motion were two Sixth Form boys from Bedford School, Sam Maling (Upper Sixth) and John Cummins (Lower Sixth).

Nawaal started off in her usual pugnacious style with the opening lines, ‘Of course this was amazing news for the People of Colour to hear, our first Person of Colour Prime Minister. Maybe not so great for me, as now my parents can say “If Rishi Sunak, a brown person, can be Prime Minister- so can you!”.

She was followed by assured seconder Grace Briers who addressed the idea that class, rather than race is the key issue in party politics. She made some fantastic points about how the government is post racial, and should be focusing on fixing its classist issue, referencing Sunak’s elitist education and shady ‘family’ dodging of UK taxes.

Both Nawaal and Grace were fantastic; Nawaal even received a ‘Wow’ after the delivery of her speech.

It was a lively evening with a number of challenging Points of Information dealt with competently by both teams. Each team achieved over four hundred points with only four points between them! 

Ian Dalgarno, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire, who led the panel of seven judges said: “This is the third of the first-round events and this was the most difficult decision so far as both teams were so strong. We have therefore decided that both teams should go through to the semi-final at Bedfordshire Police Headquarters in Kempston in 10 days’ time. Congratulations to all and good luck in the next round!”

The Junior Debate team will be invited to attend the second round to build a foundation to flourish as they move up in the Senior School.

If the students are successful in the next round, they will go to Westminster Palace for the final.

Thank you to Mrs Barrett in the English Department for all her help and support.