tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3553440626649035970.post7064072775458263743..comments2023-12-10T16:30:24.965+00:00Comments on Max Atkinson's Blog: Another Tory speech that marked the beginning of the end for a prime ministerMax Atkinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06163447049027217653noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3553440626649035970.post-68679068800653478302009-03-29T20:33:00.000+01:002009-03-29T20:33:00.000+01:00MaxThank you for the link. This was not one of min...Max<BR/><BR/>Thank you for the link. <BR/><BR/>This was not one of mine. By then I was at the Embassy in South Africa grappling to end apartheid and Geoffrey Howe was no longer Foreign Secretary. I have no idea if Elspeth Howe contributed to it, but she is a feisty woman and no doubt would have had privileged opportunities to make her views known to her husband...<BR/><BR/>The full text of the Howe speech is here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199091/cmhansrd/1990-11-13/Debate-1.html#Debate-1_head1<BR/><BR/>It reads very much like his own work - careful and measured to a fault. Apart from the rather clunky cricket metaphor, it is in itself fairly unmemorable as a piece of rhetoric (see eg the warm words for the UK joining the ERM, which did not work out so well). <BR/><BR/>It nonetheless achieved its legendary status not for what it 'said', but for what it did - namely signal head-on an irreversible dissatisfaction with Mrs Thatcher from one of her previously most loyal colleagues, and so from the heart of her own ranks. It opened the way to her speedy downfall. <BR/><BR/>It achieved that by attacking Mrs Thatcher and her approach to Europe in a firm, principled but also impeccably honourable Hovian understated way.<BR/><BR/>Which perhaps is why it was so devastating in its unique way, as a more explicit/'obvious' and/or insulting attack by Sir Geoffrey could have been dismissed as uncharacteristic, unconvincing petulance. <BR/><BR/>See eg the contrast between the Dan Hannan go at Gordon Brown and the other UKIP EP speech by Nigel Farage which UKIP are now busy pushing out, as per the comment here above. Which is better and has more impact if you are a student of speechwriting? The more spontaneous, vehement Farage club? Or the more mannered but deft Hannan rapier?<BR/><BR/>All this reinforces the point in that terrific book on communication by Frank Luntz. 'Words that Work': "it's not what you say - it's what they hear". <BR/><BR/>And, more, what they remember?Charles Crawfordhttp://www.charlescrawford.biznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3553440626649035970.post-27332801928051799092009-03-29T15:40:00.000+01:002009-03-29T15:40:00.000+01:00This is now rising fast on YouTube and was the spe...This is now rising fast on YouTube and was the speech that preceded Daniel Hannan's:<BR/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDwQEEAZhWMukipwebmasterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12240335641832778726noreply@blogger.com