The Competition

Aims

The competition is organised and promoted by the Parliamentary Press Gallery, the organisation for Parliamentary and political journalists at Westminster. The aim of the competition is to promote awareness and discussion of the values of parliamentary democracy and the political process.

This years titles are:

Year 10 and 11 (S3-4 in Scotland)

Imagine you are an adviser to a minister with responsibility for aid and trade to Africa. Write a short report setting out ideas to get British school children more involved in the Government's campaign to tackle poverty, including free education for all across the continent.

Year 12 and 13 (S5-6 in Scotland)

Imagine you are advising the Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition ahead of next year's G8 summit of world leaders. Write a balanced discussion paper assessing how, or whether, Britain's aid policy objectives - universal free education, universal access to drugs to tackle malaria and HIV - can be achieved. Set out how these objectives have been affected by the UK's wider foreign policy and military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You may find up to date political information to help you at:

• www.ePolitix.com
• www.parliament.uk
• www.hansard-society.org.uk
• www.savethechildren.org.uk
• www.oxfam.org.uk

Closing date

The closing date for entries is Monday 12th November. Please send your entry via email to: info@writenow.org.uk or by post to:

Elizabeth Johnson,
Administrator,
Parliamentary Press Gallery,
House of Commons,
London SW1A 0AA

Eligibility

(a) Age
Entrants must be pupils in any of the year groups specified at the time of submitting their entry.

The competition is divided into two year groups, i.e. Group 1 will cover Years 10 and 11; *(S3 - 4 in Scotland) Group 2 will cover Years 12 and 13 *(S5 - 6 in Scotland). There will be one winner from each age group in each region (see (b) below), i.e. a total of two winners per region. In addition there will be one overall competition winner per age group, selected from amongst the regional winners.

(b) Regions
The competition is open to residents of the UK (including the Channel Islands) and will be conducted regionally as follows:

• England: East of England, London & the South East, Midlands, North East, North West, South West, Yorkshire & the Humber
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

There will be one winner from each year group (see (a) above), in each region i.e. a total of two winners per region. In addition there will be one overall competition winner in each age group, selected from amongst the regional winners.

The Parliamentary Press Gallery reserves the right, if necessary,

- to adapt these regions to reflect the geographical distribution of the entries received.

- not to make an award in any section of the competition if, in the opinion of the judges, the standard of entries does not match the required criteria.