The 110th Jonathan Backhouse Hodgkin (JBH) Speech Competition shook Main Hall on the evening of Wednesday 27th November with the exuberant audience hurling verbal encouragements and assaults towards the stage. The unusual format of the long-running public speaking event encourages eight minutes of heckling from the crowd sandwiched between the initial three-minute argument and the concluding sentiments. Each speaker has the challenge of talking on their chosen topic with the aim of persuading the animated audience to support their controversial point of view.
This year’s six speakers rose to the challenge with speeches on a wide range of contentious issues, having drawn numbers to determine the order in which they would speak. Antigioni (Lower Sixth) kicked off proceedings with ‘Animal Testing is justified for the improvement of Medicine’, followed by last year’s winner Kemianna (Upper Sixth) arguing that ‘Governments Should Not Pay Back Reparations for Slavery’. The contest continued with more impassioned speeches. Zara (Lower Sixth) argued that ‘The global market in human organs should be legalised.’ Kimia (Upper Sixth) made the case that ‘As a society we should abolish feminism.’ Cali (Lower Sixth) contended that ‘Euthanasia should be legalised in the UK for all over 18s.’ Throughout, the students skilfully fielded questions from a lively and engaged audience, which included students, staff, OLs, and family members. The series of speeches concluded with Louis’ (Lower Sixth) fiercely challenged campaign that ‘Trump is the only way forward for America’.
Our esteemed judges had a tough task ahead of them to identify which of our courageous students performed the most successful public speech. Anna Burnett, Jess O’Hara and Tom MacAndrew are both previous JBH winners with Anna kindly returning for a round two, having judged last year as well. Meanwhile, Mark Laynemith from the University of Reading chaplaincy joined us for the first time. After much deliberation, Cali was crowned winner, closely followed by joint runners-up Zara and Kimia. Cali celebrated “It was absolutely amazing. I had such an adrenalin rush and I actually enjoyed it so much that I was disappointed when the bell sounded”.
Well done to everyone who participated, for more photos visit our flickr gallery.
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