• Home Page
• -
• News Centre
• -
• News Archive
• -
• 2007
• -
• June
• -
• Success for Knowsley's Young Debaters

Access Tools

Members of Knowsley's Youth Parliament have achieved success in a national debating competition at their first attempt.

The young people from across Knowsley received the fantastic news that they were runners up out of 160 entries in this year's National Youth Parliament Debating Competition for their entry on 'Raising the Legal Age of Alcohol Consumption to 21' The debate was filmed in Knowsley Council Chamber and submitted on DVD to be judged by a panel of MPs in London.

There was further celebration for Richard Reid, aged 17 who won an individual award for the 'Best Closing Speech'. Richard and some of the young people involved will travel to London on Wednesday to attend an Awards Ceremony and watch Question Time in the House of Commons, featuring the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

Richard Reid said: 'It was a great experience to be involved in the making of the DVD and fun learning what debating a bill in the House of Commons would be like. We are excited about going to London, especially watching Question Time in the House of Commons because we'll be trying to get some tips from the MPs for the competition next year!'

Councillor Graham Wright, Knowsley's Cabinet Member for Children's Services said: "This was the first time that that our Youth Parliament had entered the competition and their very creditable second place is a sign of the hard work they have put into the project. I certainly expect some of them to be joining me on the Council in a few years' time - that's if they don't become MPs first!"

The DVD which features the debate was given its 'premiere' at the Huyton Suite in Knowsley this week, where young people enjoyed the 'red carpet' treatment at an Oscar style event.

Note to Editors:

Picture Caption: Nathan Horan and Jennifer Ginley and other members of Knowsley Youth Parliament at the 'premiere' of their DVD with the Mayor and Mayoress of Knowsley, Cllr Eddie Baker and Margaret Taylor.

- Ends -

A copy of Adobe Acrobat reader is needed to enable access to the PDF document(s) above. If you do not already have this click to Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (Link opens in a new window) now.

To read the PDF document with a screen reader please visit Access Adobe website (Link opens in a new window), which provides useful tools and resources. Adobe also has a free online conversion tool for PDFs.