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brian_eggleston's Debates
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The State of Massachusetts should be ceded in order to create a homeland for Roma people
For centuries, Roma people (otherwise known as Gypsies) have travelled far and wide and have faced prejudice and persecution wherever they have gone. In many ways, their experience mirrors that of the Jewish people. However, whereas the Jews were granted their own homeland when the State of Israel was created after World War II, even though the Nazi's exterminated over 600,000 Roma people in the Holocaust, the Roma still have nowhere to call "home". http://www.romani.org/ The Jewish people...
It's time we set the moon alight.
Most people have seen footage of the lunar landings, but how many people have wondered why the astronauts didn't celebrate their safe arrival by lighting up a well-deserved cigarette? Well, here's the reason: the moon's surface is highly flammable. A carelessly discarded cigarette could easily set the lunar soil alight. That's because it's composed of large amounts of oxygen (42%), aluminium (7%) and magnesium (6%), which as every chemistry student knows, makes a highly volatile combination o...
Shops that broadcast Christmas adverts in October must be boycotted.
It's not even Halloween yet and already there are Christmas adverts on the telly. They get earlier and earlier every year. By time Christmas finally arrives, everybody is thoroughly sick and tired of the sight of tinsel and the sound of sleigh bells. The kids are already looking forward to it and traditional celebrations such as Halloween on 31st October and Guy Fawkes' Night on 5th November are getting increasingly overlooked in the premature Yuletide excitement. Harrods is a prime example o...
It's okay for bars and pubs to discriminate against the working class.
There are certain bars and pubs in central London that have a signs on the doors designed to keep workers out. Here is an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmcgeehan/26431742/ These are discriminatory and should be outlawed. After all, if they put a sign in the door which read: "No skull-caps or gartels" they would be had up for being anti-Semitic. Similarly, if a sign read: "Die deutsche Sprache ist nach innen ausschließlich verboten" German customers would rightly protes...
It's time the British Government repealed the 1807 Slave Trade Abolition Act.
This archaic Act of Parliament is now over two hundred years old and no longer reflects the reality on the ground in modern Britain. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that privateers should be allowed to send ships over to Africa to round up the natives, transport them back to the UK and force them to work in miserable conditions for no pay; that would be very wrong indeed. Instead, what I propose is a scheme that would make real improvements to the lives of the tens of thousands of...
Socialists living under the oppression of capitalism should avoid paying taxes.
The vast majority of public expenditure in a capitalist country such as the United Kingdom is spent on public services such as health, education and social security, which disproportionately benefits socially and economically disadvantaged members of society. (1) Since it is the interests of this section of society that socialists are most concerned in advancing, and these public services are mainly financed through taxation, it might seem logical that a socialist would be insistent that all eco...
The use of politically incorrect language should be avoided.
Not so long ago, my teenage cousins, Cody and Jake, and I were walking through the park when Cody spotted a disabled man sitting unattended in a wheelchair, and he turned to his brother and said: "Jake, I dare you to go and tip that spastic out of his chair." Needless to say, I was horrified and appalled and I turned to him reprovingly and said: "Cody, we don't say ‘spastic', we say ‘disabled person'. Calling someone with disabilities a ‘spastic' can be very hurtful." Mind you, the d...
Jesus was gay and John the Evangelist was his boyfriend.
For the sake of argument, let's suppose that the New Testament is an accurate historical document and that Jesus actually existed. Now, let's examine the facts: 1 - Jesus never got married. Indeed, there is no record of him even having a steady girlfriend. Some Biblical scholars have suggested that Mary Magdalene came on to him once (1) but he clearly did a runner because there is no evidence in the Bible that they actually got off with one another. 2 – Jesus was, however, in love with...
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a worthwhile project.
Today, the LHC, which is located 100m underground on the French / Swiss border was fired up for the first time. For those who may be unfamiliar with the project, please be refer to the links (1; 2; 3) which can be found at the foot of this page. Even though this project represents one of the most important scientific experiments ever undertaken in the history of mankind, unbelievably, there are people that have criticised the programme. In addition to the usual religious zealots that h...
International soccer matches should be settled by fights, not penalties.
In the last World Cup, England's match with Portugal ended 0-0 after Portugal's Christiano Ronaldo got England's star player, Wayne Rooney, sent off. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article54412.ece http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article54413.ece http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGrwVcpUGq4 England subsequently lost the match on penalties, which was a cruel way to exit the tournament because penalties are such lotteries – the goalie can only just guess which side of th...