 The standard of the school's debating society was high, and long after the Academy had ceased to exist this was alluded to in a House of Commons retort in 1997 to the Leader of the Opposition's (Tony Blair) rhetoric, when Peter Atkinson MP replied that if Mr. Blair "had been speaking at a debating society competition between Fettes (Mr. Blair's old school) and Hamilton Academy, I would have given him some points, but this is the House of Commons.