The 4th Ordinary Meeting of the 165th session of the Literific took place on the 24th of October in the Senate Room. It was attended by 53 members.
President Kydd had a few announcements, my personal favourite being about all the moneh we’re getting from Alpha newspaper. He then totally forgot about my minutes which is just like, whatever, I don’t even care yano? It’s not like I slave over these every week or anything, pouring my blood, sweat and tears into making an accurate yet interesting account of our debates. GOD.
Whatever. Don’t think I don’t know the real reason you skipped past my minutes Kydd, you were just trying to get out of paying your fine. No account, no fine am I right?
Anywhooooo, in Private Member’s Business Ms Sobey and Mr Millington put forward that we have a Literary and Scientific Rave in the Long Gallery at Stormont in Honour of the Most Virtuous Bell End (eg the end of the bell that Adam broke). The motion was amended to THW Have a Literary and Scientific Rave on Halloween which means we’re all getting hariboed tonight guys because it passed yeooo.
We then went to the main business of the night which was electing First Year Rep. The competition was fierce, Ms Campbell, Mr Adair, Ms Kavanagh, Ms Philpot, Ms Sobey and Mr Murphy ran for the position and all made great arguments for why they should be elected. It took forever but we got there in the end and Ms Sobey was announced as our new First Year Representative.
And then we had a debate. The motion was This House Doesn’t Mind Being Watched.
Ms Evie Netto opened the debate for the proposition. She argued that safety is a human right that should be taken just as seriously as freedom. She told the House that government surveillance has already saved lives in the past and that CCTV is nothing to fear but is instead something that can bring justice.
Mr George Martin, making his maiden speech for the society, started with a bad joke that will not be repeated for the good of humanity. He explained that he no longer trusts the government and that although they may not get involved, them having all our information leaves us in a position to be dominated. He advised the House to vote against the motion as there would be no way to take back our privacy if we allowed government surveillance.
Mr Ryan Jones continued for the proposition. He commented that we live in constant fear of one another and that we must give up some of our freedom to the government to be able to be safe enough to enjoy our freedom at all. He rationalised that so much of what we do is already in the public domain and that we should take the extra step to allowing government surveillance for our own safety.
Mr Henry Adams closed the debate for the opposition. He countered that we shouldn’t be okay with surveillance just because it’s legal as there are many bad laws. He explained that the fact surveillance can be misused and abused is enough reason to not allow it. As well as this he commented that CCTV would lose some of its value in the justice system as lawyers are trained to get people off the hook.
Questions were waved and the motion went to a vote. The motion was defeated. I vaguely remember going to the bar, it was a long time ago.