Observer Mace

The John Smith Memorial Mace (known as the Observer Mace from 1954 to 1995) is an annual debating tournament (British Parliamentary format) contested by universities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The equivalent competition for secondary schools is the ESU Schools Mace.

The competition was founded in 1954 by the journalist Kenneth Harris of The Observer newspaper, and was sponsored by the newspaper until 1995. It was then renamed the John Smith Memorial Mace in honour of the British Labour Party leader John Smith, who won the tournament as a member of the Glasgow University team in 1962, and died in 1994.

The competition has been held annually since 1954, except for 1977, when no tournament was organised. In the early years, neither Oxbridge debating society (the Oxford Union and Cambridge Union) participated. Glasgow University Union has been the most successful institution in the competition's history, winning the tournament 15 times, most recently in 1995.

In addition to John Smith, other notable former winners include Charles Kennedy, Donald Dewar, John Nicolson, Lord Hunt of Wirral and Professor Anthony Clare.

Since 1993, the competition has been run by the English-Speaking Union, with assistance from regional convenors. Four regional tournmaments are held each year for universities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Irish tournament is open to teams from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The winners of these four regional competitions then go on to face each other in the International Final, which is held each spring to determine the overall champions.

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