The phrase "a simple debate" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe a discussion or argument that is straightforward and uncomplicated.
Example: "The candidates engaged in a simple debate about the key issues facing the community."
Alternatives: "an easy discussion" or "a straightforward argument."
Nor is it clear that, as a simple debate strategy, civility works.
Winning in all I do is very much who I am -- in sports, in business, in a simple debate with a friend.
He said: "It's not a simple debate about free-to-air or pay TV, there are myriad things that target different audiences in different ways.
In its veto threat on Tuesday, the White House complained that House Republicans were protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and injecting "ideological issues into what should be a simple debate about cutting taxes for the middle class".
"Before you know what happened a simple debate has escalated out of control".
With a single, strategically designed comment, a simple debate about cookware can become Klingon erotica.
A simple enough debate topic, let us know who you support and who you want your side to draw, whether you're backing England, Northern Ireland or Cape Verde.
In a simple pro/con debate over offshore drilling, there isn't enough political momentum to end the exploration and extraction of oil in the oceans.
It's helpful to realize that while you might be engaging in a simple philosophical debate, the other person might be seeking reassurance that those around him/her share cultural similarity (one of us), and may become hostile merely because they feel uncomfortable hearing your views.
If you can't put forward propositions simple and appealing enough to generate simple debate, then you are not leading the argument, just lost in one.
In short, simple debates that centre on "X prison is private and is therefore bad; Y prison is public and is therefore good" don't even scratch the surface about what an individual prison is really like, and so too prisoners will often tell you - for their own very different reasons - that they prefer private to public jails.
