After a gap of four years, the debating competition ‘Youth Speaks’ took place recently. Youth Speaks is a national public speaking competition, sponsored by Rotary International of Great Britain and Ireland. Rotary Monmouth organised the local heats which took place in the very appropriate setting of the Court Room in The Shire Hall.

Monmouth Comprehensive School, Monmouth Boys’ School and Monmouth Girls’ School all entered a team in each of the age categories, making six teams in all.

Competition was fierce and the Intermediate Level competition, on the topic ‘20 is definitely not plenty’, was won by Monmouth Comprehensive School.

The senior competition was very close-run. Monmouth Girls’ School, debating ‘Is AI-generated art destroying the meaning of art and the talent of artists?’, started this section, with each side putting forward strong arguments and fielding challenging questions from the audience. Monmouth Boys’ School argued that ‘This house believes that globalisation will be disastrous for the UK’ and the competitors produced some startling statistics on both sides of the debate.

Monmouth Comprehensive School delivered a strong debate on ‘The environment is priority number one’.

The judges deliberated and, once again, Monmouth Comprehensive School came out on top. Both their intermediate and their senior teams will now go forward to the District final in Gloucestershire on 24th February.

All the young people of the town who took part in this event impressed the judges and the audience with their choice of topics and well-reasoned debates. They clearly enjoyed the experience and admitted that they had learned a lot from it. Let’s hope that this taste has ignited in them a passion for debate and that the competition has now re-emerged permanently.