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Here's an extract from a proposition speech for the motion

This house would ban single-use plastic

‘We use plastic cups for water in our school lunch room and they’re really annoying because they keep tipping over and spilling. That’s why reusable water bottles are better.’

What’s wrong with it? It’s missing the point, that’s what. The central argument against single-use plastic is the damage it does to the environment by being non-biodegradable. Badly designed plastic cups that tip over have nothing to do with that. After all, it would be quite possible to design plastic cups that don’t tip over. It’s probably been done already, and the school just needs to buy some in. But doing that would only increase the use of single-use plastic.

If you’re arguing for the proposition, you need to find the central problem that the motion is addressing, and focus rigorously on that one problem; here, it’s the environmental damage that single-use plastic causes. Otherwise, you undermine the strength of your own case.

It’s possible to make the same mistake when you’re the opposition, by identifying a problem with the proposition which is not relevant to the motion. So, for example, a speaker opposing the motion This house would introduce a 20 mile per hour speed limit in cities might say:

‘This will take up a lot of police time arresting people who break the speed limit, and those police won’t be able to prevent knife crime, and knife crime will go up.’

Any law is going to need to be enforced, and that is going to take up some resources. The only question is whether it is a good law; this is what the opposition needs to address.

If your opponent is guilty of misidentifying the problem, point out that the problem they have identified, while real, is not relevant to the motion, and steer the argument back to the main problem.

So, in the plastics debate, say:

‘It may be the case that water bottles would work better in your lunch room than plastic cups. However, while making plastic cups illegal might solve that problem, it would create other, much bigger problems, such as …’

In the speed limit debate, say:

‘Enforcing the speed limit will take up some resources. However, those resources will be well spent, because of the benefits the new law will bring. These are …’

To sum up:

• If you are speaking for the proposition, find the essential problem the action of the motion is trying to solve and focus on that.
• If you are speaking for the opposition, find the essential problem the action of the motion will cause and focus on that.
• If your opponent misses the essential problem, point out that they have done this, and return to the essential problem.