White men will make up nearly 70% of debate speakers at the Union this term, the Lent term card revealed.

Released last Tuesday (18/01), it details the Union’s programme for debates across Lent term. Out of 39 debate speakers, only ten are women. Just five of the debate speakers are BAME.

The majority of BAME debate speakers scheduled will debate the motion “This House regrets the fall of the British Empire”. Two of those speakers, Dr Zafeer Masani, a freelance historian and broadcaster, and Dr Marie Daoida, a lecturer in French language at Oxford, will argue the proposition, while Labour grandee Baroness Shami Chakrabati will oppose the motion.

Past line-ups have also lacked diversity. Last term only fourteen BAME speakers featured across twelve debates. Out of fifty one debate speakers only nineteen were women.

In his introduction to the term card, President James Vitali described how “Debating will be at the centre of what we do this term”.

Vitali went on to tacitly address the controversy surrounding free speech last term, where art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon was allowed to use racial slurs as part of an uninterrupted Hitler impression.

Vitali said: “Since 1815, the Union has been a place [...] that has cherished the basic values of free speech and the free exchange of ideas, and that has, undoubtedly courted controversy. Some things, it would seem, do not change…”

Equalities Officer David Quan told Varsity that “our Equalities Committee worked tirelessly over the holidays to create a diverse term-card. We are committed to making the Union more accessible: we’ve set up Reading Groups and socials, improved the Women’s and Non-Binary Debating Programme, and engaged with the Schools Liaison Officers Group to improve access to our world-class resources.”

Press Officer Ed Barlow said that it was “always possible to find some way to nitpick a term card.”

He claimed that “Varsity run this story every term” and that “the reality is we’ve made the Union more accessible than ever with a “How to Get Involved” Guide, a debating workshop with the 93% Club, and organising 14 out of our 34 events on issues about social justice.”