 Thank you. Welcome back again. I hope that the judges have had sufficient time for their own debate and have reached their conclusions. I now like to ask the Presiding judge John Dye to offer his adjudication speech. Mr Dye, please come forward to the lectern. Good evening, Presiding Officer ladies and gentlemen. I have been doing this quite a lot over a number of years, and I have to stand here. I know how nervous I get, so I take my hat off to all of the young people who spoke tonight for doing it with such a plomb and such assuredness that I'm sure they could teach at least some of our MSPs a lesson or two in public speaking and debating. I should just say present company excluded. But I'm here to do a short speech really just to, I'll tell you the result, but also just to give you a bit of a background as to what informed our decision making process tonight. I would just like to start though by saying that, you know, we, myself and my fellow judges felt that we had a really enjoyable two debates tonight. We really enjoyed them, we enjoyed listening to them and it was thought provoking and we got thought provoking points and analysis in both debates and in the floor debates. So, you know, it's always a more enjoyable experience for us when we enjoy the experience and I hope that the people in the audience did as well. I'm not going to go into lots of detail as to how we arrived at our decision, but I do just want to give you a few flavours of things that came up in the judging room. I think one of the things that we considered was flexibility of the teams and being able to navigate their arguments to reflect the points that are coming up during the debate. After all, that's what debating's about, it's not just public speaking, it's actually about engaging and addressing the points that have come up, even if they're points that maybe you weren't expecting. Tonight we had a complex motion, there's no question about it, it's a motion, it's a subject that nations and the world have been grappling with for many years, so we weren't going to necessarily solve it all tonight. But we did favour teams that actually grappled with the complexity of this and actually gave us some underlying analysis of why what they were saying was right, rather than simply asserting that something's true. Because debating's not just about saying something's true, it's actually proving to a sceptical audience that it is true, and we favour teams that did that better. There were not just two debates that we had tonight, there was a third debate that happened and the third debate was in the judging room itself. So there was really quite a lot of favour debating going on and you probably gathered that it wasn't the easiest of decisions this year that we had to make. Before I announce that the second and first place teams in the debates, we do have a prize for our floor speeches tonight and we chose someone who actually, again going back to my phrase, thought provoking, actually gave us something new that perhaps hadn't come up in the debate itself, gave us something to think about. So the winner of this year's floor debate award goes to Emily Wilson from Dunblane High School. So congratulations to her. And then on to the debates themselves. Well as I said I probably gave you a flavour that it wasn't an easy decision this year and in fact I'll go as far as to say it was a split decision. So on that basis, in a second place, the second place runners-up tonight goes to Douglas Academy. And so the winners this year of the Donald Dure memorial debating competition 2014 goes to Craigmount High School. Congratulations to all of them. Right, well. Thank you, John. And we'll now hear from Lorna Jack, who's the chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland. And Lorna, will you deliver a vote of thanks, please? Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, ladies and gentlemen, judges and competitors. I'm delighted to be once again standing here at the final of the Donald Dure memorial debating tournament. 2014 is a hugely important year for Scotland. Along with Glasgow hosting the Commonwealth Games this summer, this is also the year in which Scotland will have its say over independence. In particular, many of the individuals sitting on the floor tonight will for the first time be able to vote and take part in this important debate and important decision. Having heard the very thoughtful and well-researched arguments tonight from our teams and also from the contributions from the floor, I know that Scotland's future will be in very safe hands if this is an example of the capabilities of our young citizens, regardless of the outcome of the referendum. In extending thanks, can I start by saying thank you to those who have made the tournament a success this year? But before I do that, I think I'd like to remind you just what's been involved in this tournament and why the competitors, all of them, have done so well in reaching this final. For some of our judges, coaches, teachers and perhaps even competitors, it might seem like no time at all since we were last here in the Scottish Parliament for the 2013 final. However, between then and now, there's been a year of competition. To reach the final of this tournament, all teams have to complete in the first round with three other teams, which takes place in November. The best two teams from that heat then progressed to the second round, which takes place in January. Again, there are four teams in each of the second round heats, but this time only one team progresses. In the semifinals, all the teams must debate a short motion. This means that they are given the motion one hour before they are tasked with debating it in front of the judges. They're given no access to books and no access to computers during the time, so it really is a test of their debating skills and their ability to think on their feet. The winners of each of the semifinals are the four teams who you have seen debating in front of you this evening. I'm sure that you'll agree that they have provided us with a fabulous evening of debate, and most definitely all deserve their place in this final. Can I now turn to our winners, Craig Mundt High, who will just have a few more minutes to wait before they can receive their prizes. The Donald Juer memorial is the largest debating tournament in Scotland and schools from across Scotland take part each year. To get to the final four is a significant achievement in itself and well done to our winners for going one step further to be crowned champions this year. I hope that you will all remember this evening for a very long time to come and you should all feel very proud. Can I also congratulate all of our finalists, your debates made for an entertaining and exciting evening, and I hope that you decide to continue to debate throughout school and beyond. One of the main reasons that teams are so thrilled to get to the final is to have this very rare opportunity to debate in this prestigious venue. I'd like to thank the Deputy Presiding Officer, John Scott MSP and of course all the staff at the Parliament including the education team and event managers Vicki Little and Lindsay Davie in particular for allowing us to host the final here and for making tonight such a success. Your continued support of this tournament is hugely appreciated. I would also like to thank all the participants from the floor debate. The floor debates get livelier and more engaging each year and this evening was certainly no exception. Well done to all the contributors and in particular to Emily from Dumblay and our floor prize winner tonight. I was a bit worried earlier on that you couldn't see her over my head so thankfully that didn't stop her making our contribution. Some of you might be debaters already or some of you this might be just giving you a taste for debate so we hope to see many of you enter the 2015 tournament when it starts again in the autumn. Standing up here to address you gives me a great picture of just how many people are sitting up in the gallery supporting our debaters this evening. I know that there are friends, there are family members, there are coaches and there are teachers who will have been very proud to see their teams competing tonight. Can I thank you all for supporting this tournament and in particular can I thank the debate coaches? Hopefully you'll all get a summer break. You'll be off on your summer holidays but you'll start to get yourself thinking about entering the 2015 tournament in autumn. Sitting in the gallery are also many judges from this year. You are so vital to the success of the tournament and we're delighted so many of you could join us tonight to watch the culmination of what has been a year of hard work. We really do appreciate the time you take to attend the heats to provide constructive and helpful feedback, often travelling great distances to schools and often in the winter through difficult weather. We hope that you've enjoyed being involved and you're already planning to be a judge again. Can I particularly thank our panel of judges tonight sitting in front here? Every year during the debate I am grateful that I am not part of that group and having to decide between the teams is really a tough task and tonight was a particular example of that. I hope that you have enjoyed this evening and you have a chance to relax soon, deliberating over the results that we were all in the garden lobby having some refreshment. I will provide you all with a token of the Law Society's appreciation for a terrific job done this evening, so thanks again to the judges. We're of course delighted again this year to be supported by Hodor Gibson, the publishers, our sponsors in the tournament and we're also very grateful to the Glasgow Bar Association for donating the second prize tonight. I'm pleased to welcome representatives John Mitchell from Hodor Gibson and Ross Sheol from the Glasgow Bar Association, who will present the prizes tonight alongside our president Alasdair Morris. Thank you both for your continued support. My thanks to my colleagues at the Law Society Scotland, particularly Heather McKendrick and Katie Elliott. Heather and Katie worked throughout the year to co-ordinate the schools, the judges, the teachers, the sponsors to ensure that the tournament runs to schedule and continues to provide school pupils across Scotland with the support. It's a great chance to compete. They told me how much they enjoy watching the final, sadly Katie's at home sick today. I hope she's been watching on the webcam, but I know they enjoyed this after the months of planning. I know they'd also like to add their thanks to the judges and coaches in particular for your continued flexibility in ensuring the schedule can be met. Again, they look forward to their summer break, but back again in autumn for the 2015 tournament. Finally, once again, a thank you and well done to our finalists. The standard of debate tonight was exceptionally high and everyone is to be congratulated on their performances. I'm sure that our finalists are keen to receive their prizes, so I will pass back to the deputy Presiding Officer to allow that to happen. Many congratulations and I hope to see many of you next year. Thank you. I, too, would like to add my thanks to the judges, who I think had an extraordinarily difficult task tonight. It would take the wisdom of Solomon to differentiate between the quality of speeches and presentations that we heard tonight, so I don't end your task. However, well done and thank you. We now move to the presentation of the prizes. I'm delighted to announce that all the finalists will receive a commemorative quake, which I believe is over there, for their efforts as well as a book token. The winner of the best floor speech will receive a £50 book token. The runners-up and the winning team will share £500 worth of book tokens from the educational range, supplied by Hodder Gibson. The winning school will receive £1,000 towards their debating society and, of course, the all-important tournament trophy, theirs for one year to polish. I would now like to ask Alistair Morris, president of the Law Society. Alistair, if you would like to come forward, Ross Ewell from the Glasgow Bar Association and John Mitchell from Hodder Gibson, all sponsors of the tournament to come to the floor of the chamber for the prize-giving. Could I ask Alistair to stand beside the prize table with John next to him? I'm not sure of the order with Alistair to stand beside the prize table with Ross beside him, followed by John. I will now ask Emily Wilson of Dunblane High, who is the winner of the best floor speech, to come forward and receive the prize. I would now like to ask Trinity High School and Glenamond College to come forward and receive your well-end prizes. Can I ask Craig Mount High School to come forward and receive their prize as the winners of the 2013-14 Donald Jure memorial? Rewinding, can we say well done to those runners-up and could the runners-up Douglas Academy please come forward and receive their prizes too? Finally, can I now ask Craig Mount High School to come forward and receive their prize as the winners of the 2013-14 Donald Jure memorial debating trophy? Well done, everyone. You should all be very proud of your contributions to this evening and of reaching the final. A great achievement, I hope you all agree, and a fantastic evening for us all. That's it. I would just like to ask those who will be staying for the official photograph to remain in the chamber. I hope you know who you are. I'm not able to tell you. Do they know who they are? They should do. You will be staying for the official photograph and it just remains for me to once again say thank you for coming this evening, what a super evening we've had. I hope you've all enjoyed taking part in the debate. I wish you a safe journey home. Thank you and good night.