PUPILS at a Pendle high school received advice "straight from the horse's mouth" on how to stage a Commons debate as part of a nationwide schools competition.

Pendle MP Gordon Prentice visited Edge End High, Nelson, yesterday to listen to Year 8 students argue for and against a second Channel Tunnel.

The debating session was part of the Motorola Youth Parliament competition run amongst schools across Britain.

The students listened to Mr Prentice's experiences of debating and got some tips on how their version compared to the real thing at Westminster. The debate was videoed and will be used as the school's entry in the contest.

Mr Prentice said: "I was thoroughly impressed with last year's debate on the Euro and I was able to give some general advice on parliamentary procedure so I very much looked forward to going along again. I picked up some interesting views that I can take back to my colleagues at Westminster."

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