New Blood News

Check the News page for details of upcoming events and recent achievements.

posted 14:27 03/05/2004
Why has this site not been updated for over a year? There are plenty of reasons (not least of which that the webmaster has a conditional offer for university and has more important things to do), and some explanation is offered on the homepage. Rest assured New Blood still exists, but with Andrew's Presidency now at an end this might very well bring the website to a close. It will still be accessible as a memento, if you will, of a successful debating society: proof that debating can be intelligent and enjoyable for everyone; proof that the idea behind New Blood was ultimately realised; proof that we all had a good time. Perhaps next term the new organisers of the society - Jonathan and Chris - will decide to keep the website up and running. Watch this space. However, it's time for me to sign off forever: thank you.

posted 20:18 23/05/2003
David has passed on the Presidency to Andrew. However, hopefully David will be coming back as a staff member next year and he can lend a hand to Andrew. It will be all change in the 2003-4 term: Mr Dyer has been promoted to the position of Deputy Head...in another school. Of course we wish him luck but it will be sad to see him go. New Blood, we hope, will live on as his legacy. And David's legacy. And, to some extent, mine. But not Laffy's.

posted 20:35 06/04/2003
Talk about going out with a bang: in their last external as a team, David and Andrew won the final of the John Smith competition for the second time in a row. Speaking of grand finales, New Blood this week promises to be great with Mr Fitzgerald and Mr McLaughlin both making guest appearances. More news will follow whenever, but don't expect to see "David and Andrew" used much more. Sniff.

posted 20:13 26/02/2003
David and Andrew are the regional champions of the ESU Mace competition and will be proceeding to the Scottish final in mid-March. If the host school is nearby, this would really be worth coming to: if you do, you will be rewarded with the impressive sight of Scottish debating at its finest. More events are coming up, including the Donald Dewar Memorial (Law Society) competition. Details will be posted. Jonathan and Chris will also be competing soon, but no dates have yet been arranged.

posted 20:15 15/02/2003
Can't talk. Prelims. Busy. ESU (Senior) next round: 25th February, Stewarts Melville, Edinburgh. Next New Blood: soon. What am I, the Oracle?

posted 20:15 17/01/2003
Still here, still debating, just very busy. David and Andrew through to next round of various competitions. Jonathan and Chris likewise. Mr Fitzgerald debate coming soon. Andrew losing ability to speak coherently, relying on disjointed journalistic sentences. More soon. Busy.

posted 19:23 03/12/2002
Check out the downloads page page for a great picture of George Dubya; I had to put it somewhere and that seemed like a good place. On a more relevant note, well done to Jonathan and Chris who got through the first round of the ESU Junior Competition. David and Andrew were called to stand in at the last minute but were told to "go easy on them". Remember not to miss this week's meeting, which is being referred to as The People vs. Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Cassidy. Debate of the century, I have no doubt.

posted 15:44 17/10/2002
Well, Tony never turned up. The debate wasn't bad, but you can't help but feel sorry for Mr. Cassidy. ( Don't ask. ) If you read this, Tony, stay out of David's way for a while.

posted 17:57 07/10/2002
New Blood is in M5 this Wednesday. Mark McManus is speaking, which is reason enough to go, but apparently so is Tony Gormley, complete with outrageous dyed hair. Okay? Okay.

posted 21:28 23/9/2002
New Blood starts this Thursday in the Forum of the Clavius Building at 3.35pm. See you there. ( I'm assuming that because you read this page, you have an interest in nB and will therefore be attending. But please, correct me if I'm wrong. )

posted 18:03 15/9/2002
New Blood will be starting during Week 3 - more details to follow. Check the noticeboards. Unfortunately the Hall is fully booked so the location will changed. At the moment the Clavius Building is being considered. Unfortunately the Mezzanine of the Chandlery Building has been taken up by the Arrupe Centre (if you're not familiar with St. Aloysius' College, I swear I'm not making that up). Furthermore, there's a new poll on the Hot Topic page. I've been away for so long, I've almost forgotten how to make a link.

posted 15:45 14/9/2002
I know I haven't updated this for ages, I'm sorry. However, that doesn't mean that we haven't had our share of success: Chris Lowe and Jonathan Lafferty won the Scottish Final of the ESU Junior Competition in Edinburgh; now the College can boast that they are Senior and Junior Scottish Champions. Unfortunately, the junior team don't get to go down to London as there's no international final, but they do get to participate again this year in the same contest. In other news Roseannah Murphy took part in the Northern Lights Debating Competition in Aberdeen with David and Andrew . Our team was narrowly beaten, but at least we learned something: we really, really don't want to go to Aberdeen again. "It's our city," their slogan boasts; "nobody else wants it," replies Mr. Dyer. The end is nigh.

posted 18:53 24/6/2002
Chris and Jonathan won the Glasgow final of the ESU Juniors and will go on to represent the city elsewhere, so congratulations to them and thanks to everyone who attended. In other news, I'm fairly certain my account has been shut down with the company that provided the adverts. Oh well. That'll teach me to incentivise clicks. However, I am still an Amazon Associate so if you ever want to buy anything online please use the Amazon links I have provided.

posted 20:06 13/6/2002
Unfortunately Jonathan Lafferty and Chris Lowe were beaten in the final of the Glasgow Bar, but they performed well the very next day and are through to the semi-finals of the ESU Juniors competition. Their round will be hosted in St. Aloysius' College so there is no excuse not to attend. Except death.

posted 13:08 28/5/2002
I have added two music (mp3) tracks to the downloads page. Don't worry, it's perfectly legal because I created them myself with a little help from Magix Music Maker and Nero Wave Editor. If you have any files you would like to make available for download send me them. Please send any comments to the Guestbook. Still on the subject of the Guestbook, I also archived the older posts to create more space for new posts. Unfortunately messages are normally stored starting with the oldest one, so to read the most recent posts you would have to trawl through several pages. To solve this old posts will go here so you can still read them.

posted 19:10 27/5/2002
I have fixed the broken "sign guestbook" links on the homepage and the site map. You should no longer get that "unable to add post or view guestbook" message. There was an error in the HTML code for the links. Thanks to Catriona for bringing the problem to my attention; at last you can leave your comments on that page. I'll archive the old posts soon, because we're running out of space.

posted 11:24 24/5/2002
Congratulations to Jonathan Lafferty and Chris Lowe who got through the first round of the Glasgow Bar Association competition. Of course, if they hadn't, we would have had to kill them. Or laugh at them for hours and hours. Anyway, good luck in the final at the Glasgow Sheriff Court on June 11th.

posted 19:51 12/5/2002
Andrew and David were narrowly ( and it was very narrow ) defeated in the ESU International Final. The winners were Haberdashers' Aske's School, a public boarding school for boys. Because they were situated near London, they had brought a considerable number of spectators - and while it was nice to have an audience, none of them seemed to like us at all and made this quite clear during the Open Session. The debates themselves went quite well, although we wern't at our best. We were a bit put off by the fact that there was no lectern, just a wide open floor to walk around on while you speak. It is surprisingly tricky to start a stopwatch and turn over a piece of paper while you answer a point. Still. Excuses, eh? We don't feel that we lost unjustly at all, and we offer our congratulations to the winners. Even thought they'll never see this. Let's face it, this website has a readership of about 4.

posted 16:14 05/5/2002
On Saturday 11th May, Andrew and David will face Gonzaga College SJ (coincidentally St. Aloysius' College's Jesuit counterpart in Dublin) in the ESU final. They are proposing the motion "this house believes that liberal democracies have the right to ban extremist political parties". The English champions (Haberdasher Aske's School, who have won the competition before) will face the Welsh champions (Bishop Vaughn's School).

posted 11:08 25/04/2002
New Blood Debating is probably finished for the term because of exams. However, we hope to organise another 'celebrity' event soon; Mark wants to debate against Mr. McKean to "get revenge". Moreover, there was talk of a New Blood Dinner recently but that now seems unlikely. If I get any more news I'll post it here (on the News page, funnily enough).

posted 16:29 20/4/2002
You will doubtlessly be delighted to know that David and Andrew won the Scottish Final of the ESU Schools Mace Competition. They will be going down to London to represent Scotland against the Irish, English and Welsh winners in the middle of May.

posted 20:47 16/03/2002
David and Andrew will be taking part in the Scottish Final of the prestigious ESU Mace competition in Dundee High School at 7.00pm on Friday, 22nd March. They will be debating against some of the top teams in Scotland (even Britain, if the results of the Oxford Union are anything to go by) so wish them luck!