This afternoon, we held our debate on fracking.  Each of you had to take on the role of a member of a community where a company were proposing to start fracking. The roles were:

• the owner of a fracking company
• an unemployed person
• a member of the Green Party
• a member of the Conservative Party
• a member of the community whose garden would be disturbed
• the owner of a gas company
• the owner of a solar energy company
• the water company
• yourself.

Each group has to share their notes and research on fracking and decide if their character would be ‘for’ or ‘against’ the fracking company starting up in Bishopton. They had to decide on a list of arguments and counter-arguments to share during the debate.

Everyone had the opportunity to share their view (in character) and then they could call on specific people to question or put their point across further. I was pleased to see  that the majority took the debate seriously and showed a good understanding of fracking and its advantages and disadvantages. Poor Amy and Grace who were representing the Conservative Party took quite a verbal bashing from a lot of people but managed to stand their ground and argue their case. One member of the fracking company (no names) made a little error in judgement and let slip they were telling a white lie! Alex, another member of the fracking company did a good job of explaining his way out of that one!

See below for the positives and negatives mentioned and some photos of the passionate debate taking place.