[Debatewise RRT] last tuesday debates with anything about the world cup?
- From: "Alex Helling" <alex@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <debatewiserrt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:53:00 +0100
Evening all,
I said that I would say something about changes to the
RRT this week. The changes we are making do not really affect you too much
as we are keeping the rapid response team as our primary content creators.
What we are doing is creating a second rrt (we will call it something
different) that takes the job of improving debates rather than creating
debates. This mostly means adding points to debates that have little on them
already as well as improving debates by checking spelling, punctuation and
grammar. Other improvements they will hopefully make will be adding
examples, statistics and references to debates that do not have them
already. Essentially their task is to make debates as authoritative as
possible.
So if you are more interested in doing this than the debate creation that
you mostly do on the rrt then please email me and I will add you to the
other group.
The rapid response team will change little initially from this. However we
are also attempting to recruit more for the RRT and hope that this will mean
that we get too many people for the number of debates we send out. When this
begins to happen I hope to change the RRT to being more focused to adding
debates as they come up rather than simply responding to the debates we send
out. As this has been the intention for some time (and was the idea behind
the tasklist) I have no idea if/when this will happen. But from debatewise's
point of view it would be best if you were simply adding debates that you
are interested in rather than just taking titles sent out by us. (less work
for us! Hopefully debates you really want to do)
Alex
Debates
Will there ever be peace in Northern Ireland?
There has been a great deal of progress since the Troubles, and many
conflicts have been settled, but riots in Belfast last night after the
Orange order parades show that there may well still a long way to go. Indeed
given how far we have come only to still have violence should it be asked
whether Northern Ireland can ever become the same as Wales or Scotland?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10612369.stm
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F1%2Fhi%2Fnor
thern_ireland%2F10612369.stm>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/4968419/Northern-I
reland-has-not-been-at-peace-despite-what-Labour-claims.html
http://www.peacecouncil.org/gassmanarticle.html
Scrap best before dates.
Having dates on packaging to tell the consumer when their food is likely to
go off makes sense. However it is not certain that this should be a 'best
before' date especially if there are several other dates on the packets such
as 'sell by' and 'use by'. On the one hand it encourages to waste food while
on the other it is better to be safe than sorry. Should best before dates be
scrapped?
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Packaging/UK-plan-to-scrap-best-before-fo
od-labels-dismissed-by-industry-group
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7527435/Tonnes-of-edible-food-dumped
-in-the-bin-says-FSA.html
Howard Webb was fair in his handing out cards.
The 2010 world cup final between Spain and Holland was not a tame affair.
Howard Webb awarded 14 yellow cards and a red. Holland who lost the game
have been arguing that he made lots of mistakes particularly in the run up
to the Spanish goal that decided the result. Even the Spanish are not happy
as they think that Webb was too soft on the Dutch and should have sent off
several of their team before half time. From a neutral standpoint was Webb
fair in his cardings?
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/65776,sport,football,whining-dutch-blame-refer
ee-howard-webb-for-world-cup-defeat
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8810629.stm
Should consumers save?
Consumer spending in Britain makes up a large part of economic growth so we
should be concerned when consumers are not spending. However British
consumers were until the downturn spending more than they could afford and
piling up credit card debt. This means that they now need to save in order
to pay off that debt and while the economy is in bad shape they are not
likely to spend. Yet without them spending the economy will stay in bad
shape. Consumers therefore have a choice: to reinvigorate the economy by
spending and risk more trouble further down the line or save to pay off
their debts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/apr/08/spending-saving-office-natio
nal-statistics
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/7883308/Low-spend
ing-Britons-fear-double-dip-recession.html
http://www.investortoday.co.uk/News/Story/?storyid=3718
<http://www.investortoday.co.uk/News/Story/?storyid=3718&title=UK_public_lax
_over_personal_debt_levels&type=news_features>
&title=UK_public_lax_over_personal_debt_levels&type=news_features
Gordon Brown's defeat and resignation were inevitable.
The former business secretary Lord Mandelson revealed this week that several
senior members of the Labour cabinet believed both Gordon Brown's and
Labour's future to be near an end. Despite the comments being made in jest
at the time, do these kinds of opinions reflect in any way the behaviour of
the voting body? If ministers felt they were going to lose they were never
likely to campaign vigorously and would concentrate on consolidating their
own position when the loss came.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/12/mandelson-brown-labour-party-
finished
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/wintour-and-watt/2010/jul/13/tonyblair-pe
ter-mandelson
On the site:
Will victory in the world cup make a difference to Spain?
Spain has just won the 2010 world cup, one of the world's biggest sporting
events. It is the first time that Spain has managed to get past even the
quarter finals so the spanish are undoubtedly ecstatic with their victory.
However Spain is a country with big problems. Its regions want ever more
autonomy and reject attempts to centralise. Spain has also been badly hit by
the economic crisis. Will the result help ease these problems?
h
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fcommenti
sfree%2F2010%2Fjul%2F13%2Fspain-world-cup-national-unity>
ttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/13/spain-world-cup-national-
unity
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fcommenti
sfree%2F2010%2Fjul%2F13%2Fspain-world-cup-national-unity>
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-08/world-cup-winners-may-provide-econo
mic-boost-by-spurring-consumer-spending.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7886981/World-Cup-2
010-The-political-football-that-unites-Spain.html
Should GPs be given control of NHS funds?
The government has announced this week its new strategic restructuring of
the NHS, which will involve the NHS board being held accountable for the
health budget. The move will see the budget being drawn away from the
political and governmental sphere, with more control being granted to GPs
and other internal health officials. The move comes in accordance with
Cameron's intent to scrap "top-down targets", giving the public and NHS
employees more active control, accountability and responsibility with regard
to the budget.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/12/nhs-reform-reaction-thinktanks
-unions
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fsociety%
2F2010%2Fjul%2F12%2Fnhs-reform-reaction-thinktanks-unions>
http://www.politicshome.com/uk/story/6944/
http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2010/07/the-risks-of-gp-commissioning-by-
malcolm-prowle/
Should we be concerned about population growth?
According to the UK's Royal Society, by 2050 the world's population is
estimated to reach around nine billion. Population increase has been a topic
of debate and concern over the last fifty years, but feels perhaps even more
of an urgent and pertinent issue to address in the context of current
concerns such as climate change, immigration and the availability and
distribution of the world's resources.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10578484.stm
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F1%2Fhi%2Fsci
ence_and_environment%2F10578484.stm>
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fpublicdata%3
Fds%3Dwb-wdi%26met%3Dsp_pop_grow%26idim%3Dcountry%3AGBR%26dl%3Den%26hl%3Den%
26q%3Dpopulation%2Bgrowth%2Bstatistics>
&met=sp_pop_grow&idim=country:GBR&dl=en&hl=en&q=population+growth+statistics
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.GROW?cid=GPD_2
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fdata.worldbank.org%2Findicato
r%2FSP.POP.GROW%3Fcid%3DGPD_2>
Can science explain everything?
Some people argue that science can answer any question we have about the
universe. Others argue that science is unable to settle questions such as
whether god exists and what consciousness is. Science my not yet have
answered these questions but that does not mean it never will.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jul/12/science-question-
explain-everything
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fcommenti
sfree%2Fbelief%2F2010%2Fjul%2F12%2Fscience-question-explain-everything>
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2010/07/the-gospel-of-scientific-mate
rialism
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept06/Weinberg/Weinberg.html
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