 Welcome back everyone. I hope that the judges have been able to reach a decision. I had nervous anticipation around the chamber. I am going to ask if I can, Presiding Judge, Sarah McWhorter, to come forward to offer the adjudication speech. Sarah McWhorter Good evening everyone. I am delighted to be able to give the adjudication speech today. I would first like to thank all of our teams and all of our floor speakers for contributing to what I am sure you would all agree was a very exciting and engaging evening of debates today. First, can we just have a round of applause, please, for all the speakers today? Just before I give my feedback, I would like to remind you that the prize giving will take place shortly, so if all teams and all prize winners could please remain seated, even if I say your name as a prize given will happen in a few moments' time. This evening, and indeed throughout the whole tournament, we have seen an exceptionally high standard of debating. All of the teams have clearly, thoroughly researched the arguments that they have presented to us tonight, and every pupil who has participated today should be extremely proud of what they have achieved. First, I would like to give you four points that really impressed all of the judges about all of the teams that were here today. First, I must commend you all for being so well prepared and researching your speeches so thoroughly. There were some quite complicated political issues, which were part of tonight's topic, and you all explained them well and were very accurate in your presentation. Secondly, I have to also say how well done for your teamwork, all of the four teams showed excellent teamwork between both of the speakers. You engaged with what each other was saying, you divided the points up fairly, and I think that that was really excellent. Thirdly, you all engaged very well with points of information, and that can be a particularly tricky part of debating, as you do not know what your opposing team member is going to say. You reacted to them well and calmly, and you all made very intelligent points. Finally, well done for just rising to the sense of occasion. We are in such a fantastic setting today, and you all really rose to the challenge. You were exciting, engaging, you were well informed, and sometimes you were even funny. That is a difficult thing to do. Tonight, we have to have a winner and a runner-up, so now I would like to tell you four points that really impressed the judges about those two teams. First, I know that you are probably all sick of hearing about this from your debate coaches, but structure. It is very important to say what you are going to say, then to say it and develop it, and then to conclude what you have just said. That really helps us as the judges to take notes, and it really helps the listener to engage with what you are telling us. Secondly, develop your points fully and use examples. We thought that that was a particular strength of two of the teams tonight, as they used examples to make their arguments relevant. Thirdly, style. Style is important, as it is how you say your points that really draws the listener in, that makes us really want to listen to what you have to say and makes your points all the more believable. You can be passionate and well measured at the same time, although I appreciate sometimes that that can be finely balanced. Fourthly, rebuttal. That is a skill that both the proposition and the opposition have to have. You need to be able to engage with the points raised by your opposing team. Although all four teams did that well, our top two teams really engaged with their opposition. They picked up on the key points of clash and reacted to them. Finally, we also have prizes for the floor contributors today. I would like to say a big well done to all the floor contributors for your engaging contributions to tonight's events. As judges, we think that there are two important things that you can do as a floor contributor. You can either introduce a new relevant point or you can develop one of the key points of clash. Our two winners did that on not only one occasion but on a number of occasions tonight. Now to announce the winners. To remind you of our prizes, this year the winning team is going to receive the tournament trophy plus £1,000 for their school. The runners-up will receive £250 for their school and the winner and the runner-up team will also share £500 worth of book tokens from the tournament sponsors, Hodder Gibson's range of educational books. All of our finalists will receive commemorative quakes and book tokens and book tokens will also be presented to our floor contributors. So now the big announcement that you've all been waiting for. Firstly, I'd like to congratulate our two floor winners. They are Harry Mackle from St Andrew's and St Brides and Mary Kinahan of Peoples High School. If everyone would like to join me in a round of applause, I'm delighted to announce that the runner-up from today is Balfron High School and the winner of this evening is Bearsden Academy. And if any of the teams tonight would like some feedback, please do come and find myself for any of the other judges and we'll happily provide you with that at the end of the evening. Thank you very much. Sarah, thank you very much for that and thank you and all the judges for taking the time this evening to come along and to give us your expertise and your comments for the young people. I think they'll be hugely encouraged that you give up so much time and for your well-informed comments on how to conduct yourself in debate. If you want to come along and do a masterclass for my MSP colleagues, that would be much appreciated too. Can I now call on Lorna Jack, chief executive of the Law Society to come forward and speak to us. Thank you, Lorna. Presiding Officer, ladies and gentlemen, judges and competitors, I'm delighted to be here once again tonight at what has been a fascinating and highly entertaining final to this year's debate tournament. As many of you may be aware, 2019 has been quite a year of celebration for us. We've marked 100 years of women in law. It's the 70th anniversary of the Law Society of Scotland and, of course, the 20th anniversary of our Donald Dewar memorial debate tournament. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. It is therefore a fitting end to our debating competition once again that we've enabled Scotland's young people to shine on the floor of the Scottish Parliament debating chamber. From what we've seen this evening, we may see a few of you back in years to come. Established in 1999 and dedicated to the memory of the former First Minister, Donald Dewar MSP, our debate tournament is an event in which we take enormous pride. Not only is it one of the highlights of the Law Society calendar, but it's also one of the Parliament's biggest annual events and a favourite in the world of school debating. No wonder with a top prize of £1,000 to the winning school and, of course, that trophy. As part of our 20th anniversary celebrations, we undertook research to find out if any of the previous tournament winners had gone on to a career in the legal profession. I'm delighted to say that we have been joined this evening by Elizabeth Grant, who is sitting in the public gallery. Elizabeth is now a solicitor with the Medical Protection Society and was a debater with the winning team from St Margaret's School for Girls in 2000. It's great that you've joined us tonight and to watch your former high school compete in the final once again. We've also been joined by last year's winners from People's High School, Helen Whaley and Mary Sinclair, who are both now studying the LLB. It's fantastic to have you here, and I do hope that you have had an enjoyable evening with us. I'm sure that it's been much more relaxing than last year. As mentioned, two of our judges this evening, Sarah and Victoria, are also past participants of the tournament. Andrew McPake joins us from Craigmount High School, who has won the tournament on three occasions, so thank you to you all. It's great to have so many people with links to the competition joining us tonight. I'd like to take a moment to share with you just how challenging it's been for the competitors to make it through to tonight's final. In November, 128 teams from across Scotland registered to participate, and in a reference to news headlines from 20 years ago, our first and second round teams argued that this house believes that Google does more harm than good, and this house would abolish the national minimum wage. 16 teams then went on to compete in the semifinals, where the debaters were brought back to the present day with the motion, this house regrets the hashtag me too movement. At this stage of the competition, the debaters' skills were truly tested as the motion remained unseen until just one hour before the debate took place. In addition to the restricted preparation time, teams had no access to computers, books or mobile phones to help prepare their arguments, which added an extra element of pressure. I'm sure that you'll all agree that reaching the final is a fantastic achievement and that all four teams competing this evening are more than deserving of their place. I'd also like to take a moment to thank those of you who contributed to the floor debate. In particular, congratulations go to our floor prize winners Harry and Mary. Every year, the floor debate seems to get livelier, which is great, and we rely on you to challenge our debaters, so thank you for your input. Perhaps we'll see both of you in front of the judging panel in future. It's a great honour for us to be given the opportunity to host the final of the tournament at the Scottish Parliament, and I do hope that you will all remember tonight for a long time to come. On behalf of the Law Society and all of our guests, I'd like to thank the Presiding Officer, Ken Macintosh MSP and everyone in the Parliament's events and education teams, particularly Lynn Stewart and Douglas Miller, for ensuring that tonight has been a great success. Whilst on the subject of guests, I also thank you for involving my two colleagues who've come all the way from Zambia and Kenya to be with the Law Society this week. Edward and Mercy, I know that you've had a tremendous experience in watching the pupils' debate tonight, a very special evening for you. Watching from the gallery this evening are the team's supporters whose commitment should be recognised to the teachers, families and friends of our debaters and the team coaches who've challenged and supported all of the teams here this evening, not just our four finalists. It's your enthusiasm and commitment that has encouraged your pupils' success and I am sure that you are very proud of them indeed. Also in the gallery are supporters of our outreach initiatives and some of our esteemed judges from earlier heats, without whom, put simply, we could not have a tournament. Each year we rely on hundreds of volunteers to judge the opening rounds of the competition and this year, as indeed every year, we've seen fantastic levels of support with nearly 150 members of the legal profession registering to judge in the tournament. Thanks to your commitment and enthusiasm, schools have provided the opportunity to participate year after year. As you heard this year, schools from 29 of Scotland's 32 local authorities took part from the Highlands to the Borders, which is an exciting indicator of the levels of interest in and engagement with debate in schools across Scotland. It's with my great pleasure that I turn my attention to the judging panel, Ash, Victoria, Andrew, Sarah, Jim and Jennifer. I certainly did not envy your extremely difficult task of selecting our winners from the fantastic group of finalists. Once the event has drawn to an end, we would like to present you with a small token of our appreciation for the fantastic job that you've done this evening. You'll understand that an event like this does not happen overnight and planning for the final begins as soon as the semifinals have taken place. I would like to put on record my thanks to Lindsay Thompson, the Law Society's careers and outreach co-ordinator, who's very much been the leader of team debate this year. Lindsay was supported by her colleagues from the Law Society and she's worked enthusiastically throughout the year to co-ordinate our judges, schools, teachers and sponsors, making sure that the tournament runs to schedule. Lindsay, I know that you'll be happy to see the culmination of all that work this evening, although I know that after a short break you'll be looking forward to it all starting again in a few months. This year we're once again delighted to have our tournament sponsor by Hodder Gibson, the publishers and TC Young. We also remain most grateful to the Glasgow Bar Association for their continued support of the tournament and the donation of the second prize. It's my pleasure to thank Rosie Howey from Hodder Gibson, Isabelle Ewing from TC Young and Jim Baldwin from the Glasgow Bar Association for joining us here this evening and who will present prizes alongside the society's president, John Mulholland and Presiding Officer, Ken Macintosh. Thank you all for your continued support to sponsors, which helps to ensure that pupils across the country have the opportunity to compete in this tournament. Finally, I'll turn my attention back to our winners, Bearsden. You have been met with some seriously impressive competition tonight, so you should feel especially proud of being chosen as champions this year. Congratulations once again. I'm sure that our teams are keen to be reunited with coaches, parents and friends, so I will hand back over to the Presiding Officer to present the prizes. Thank you again to everyone who's been involved and I hope to see many of you here again next year. Thank you to the Law Society for all the work that you do. 20 years now it's been fantastic and it's never failed to impress all of us who have the joy of being part of this occasion, so thank you for the work in making it happen. Can I now invite John Mulholland, the president of the Law Society of Scotland, to come and join me? Rosie Howey from Hodder Gibson and Isabelle Ewing from TC Young are sponsors of the tournament to come to the floor for the prize giving. So now could I ask Mary Kinahan and Harry Mackle, winners of the best floor speeches, to come forward and to receive your prizes? I also ask St Margaret's School for Girls and St Andrew's academy to come forward to collect your prizes. I can also ask Jim Bald of the Glasgow Bar Association and sponsor of the second prize to come to the floor to present the runners-up with their prize and could the runners-up Balforn High School please come forward to present to receive your prize. This is absolutely typical for two outstanding pupils who sacrificed their time tonight on prom night. There are six year pupils and so Matthew Barton and Michael Dunn went late to their own prom so they caved their speeches and they've had to rush back to Bear's Den to their prom. You can't miss your prom for your sixth year at school. Despite being outstanding contributors, they have put in place two ersatz pupils who are going to stand in for Michael and Matthews. Can I ask you to come forward on behalf of Michael and Matthew? Thank you very much everybody. Thank my judges and sponsors for your contribution. Thank all the pupils in particular for a fantastic night, really enjoyable night. Thank you all, ladies and gentlemen, for coming along and making this possible. Please have a safe journey home. All the floor panellists, floor contributors and teams stay for one more official photograph of everybody, but on that note can I thank you very much.