The Birmingham Commonwealth Association and the Round Table, the Commonwealth journal of international affairs, will host a debate on the Commonwealth and the UK’s role within the group at the Birmingham City Council Chamber on January 17, 2018
The Birmingham Commonwealth Association and the Round Table, the Commonwealth journal of international affairs, will host a debate on the Commonwealth and the UK’s role within the group at the Birmingham City Council Chamber on January 17, 2018.
The Round Table, in collaboration with student unions, academics and institutions such as the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University, will challenge received opinions about the Commonwealth in the evening debate at the Council Chamber, the first in a planned series of debates held in Belfast, Cambridge, Exeter and Nottingham.
The debate will be chaired by President of the Birmingham City Student Union Jaspreet Singh, with the motion being proposed by Nicholas Cheeseman, the Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham.
Professor Cheeseman is the author of `Democracy in Africa: Successes, failures and the struggle for political reform’ and his analysis has appeared in such publications as the Economist, Financial Times and Wall St Journal.
He will be seconded by Birmingham University student Alana Tomlin and will be opposed in the motion by Keith Stokes Smith.
Stokes Smith is Founding Chairman of the Birmingham Commonwealth Association and former Group Company Secretary of British Home Stores Plc and Wickes Plc, as well as being Consul for Lithuania in the West Midlands and President of the Birmingham Consular Association.
His Seconder will be Darrel Blake, a student of Black Studies at Birmingham City University.
The UK city of Birmingham has recently been selected as the host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, following a prolonged and complicated bidding process after Durban was stripped of the position because it failed to meet financial deadlines.
Its bid slogan was `Heart of the UK, Soul of the Commonwealth’, a reflection of the city’s increasing input to the Commonwealth union.
