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The UK Youth Parliament just held its annual debate in the House of Commons Chamber. Permission to use the Chamber is granted to the Youth Parliament uniquely, because of the importance of encouraging and training the rising generation in the art of Parliamentary debating. But what is that art? What are Parliamentary debates really for? I asked a group of school students that question earlier this week and their answer was that Parliament is a place for people to speak. But after discussion they agreed that there are many other places, physical and online, where people are able to speak freely, and that the value of Parliament is less as a protected place for speaking, and more as a protected space for listening. Parliamentary procedure is structured to encourage listening. For example, MPs are not generally called to speak in debates unless they were there at the start and they are expected to stay after their own speech; and they are encouraged to take interventions to show that the purpose of debate is not just to state my opinion but to refine it by listening to other perspectives. Judaism frequently challenges its adherents to understand the importance, and difficulty, of listening. In his translation of the daily prayer book the late Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks explains that the common Hebrew word “shema”, the name of a core prayer, can be translated as to hear, which he says is purely passive, or as to listen, which he says is active and takes care, thought and practice. In similar vein the Talmud records an argument between two sages – Hillel and Shammai – about truth and falsehood in answering questions; the essence of Hillel’s argument is that you cannot answer a question truly unless you have listened sufficiently carefully to the question to understand exactly what is being asked and why. The world today is full of people shouting at each other, physically or electronically. All too frequently, neither side appears to be listening to the other, and the purpose seems to be simply to create and inflame tensions by hurling slogans at each others’ heads. If we want to reverse cycles of hostile tension we need to look to our youth to give a lead not in effective speaking or writing, but in sensitive listening and reading. So I hope the members of the Youth Parliament last week enjoyed their visit to Westminster, and that they learned something about how to speak, but much more about how to listen.