Kenneth Roy, 1945-2018
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of the Young Programme's founder and chair, Kenneth Roy. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. His obituary has been published in the Scottish Review.

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Storm Ali, the first storm of the season, raged outside on the first full day of our international event of the year which brought together delegates on the annual Young Ireland Programme and the Autumn Young Scotland Programme. Patrick McCabe of the Department of Justice and Equality was named Ireland Young Thinker of the Year 2018, mainly for an 'exceptionally mature paper on the tyranny of counting, a world in which crude measurement takes precedence over professional and ethical judgements...a challenging concept to get across in a short oral presentation but Patrick succeeded in doing so with his confident use of language and clarity of thought...And the quality of the content was matched by a faultless presentation.'

Scotland Young Thinker of the Year 2018 (a title shared with the winner of the forthcoming Winter Young Scotland Programme) was Lauren Bennett of Fife Council. In her Argument, 'a serious subject – the impact of artificial intelligence on human employment – was handled with a light and assured touch. It was a paper full of quirky insights, well-chosen sources and shafts of humour.' Click here for photos.

Our final event of the year is the Winter Young Scotland Programme, to be held in Troon later this month. Click here for the delegates.

The dates for the 2019 Young Local Authority of the Year have just been announced: 3rd and 4th April. Watch this space for more information.