Opening Government (OG) / Opening Opposition (OO)

The two teams of the Opening Half. Opening Government (OG) speaks first and third in the round (Prime Minister, then Deputy Prime Minister); Opening Opposition (OO) speaks second and fourth (Leader of the Opposition, then Deputy Leader of the Opposition). OG has definitional fiat: it is tasked with defining the debate and, where the motion needs one, setting out its model in the PM speech (the DPM may only clarify it). OO stands on the opposite bench: the LO either accepts the definition or challenges it when it is a squirrel, and only the LO may advance a counter-proposition (see Countermodel).

• Roles: PM / LO and DPM / DLO.
• Diagonals: OG is compared with CO, and OO with CG (see Diagonal Bench Dynamics).