Another King's Speech: "Syrian soldiers & security personnel are innocent"

A couple of days after the Moroccan King's speech (HERE), President Assad of Syria has taken to the stage in another attempt to assure his people and the world what a reasonable chap he is.

Difficult though it is to compare two speakers of a language I don't understand, I can't help being rather more impressed by what the hereditary King Mohammed VI of Morocco had to say than by what the latest self-appointed member of the Assad family says in this clip.

If Syrian soldiers and security personnel are as innocent as he claims, do we take it that he's generously invoking the Eichmann defence on their behalf? "Only obeying orders" may be all that they're doing, but presumably they are orders that were issued by the genial Mr Assad and his henchmen.

P.S. a few months later:

Access to the above video has apparently been withdrawn - but you can watch an excerpt from another speech by the doomed dicatator here:

The King's Speech - Moroccan style

Over the last few months, I've found Al Jazeera to be a great resource for keeping up with what's going on in the Middle East.

And here, thanks to them, is a version of the King's Speech you may not have heard - by King Mohammed VI of Morocco. Interestingly, when it comes to delivery, he seems to have learnt a thing or two from King George VI's daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

As regular readers will know, I've long been fascinated by the way she delivers the annual Queen's Speech, in which she sets out her government's legislative plans for the forthcoming parliamentary year (for more on which, see The Queen's Speech: an exception that proves the ruler).

In discussing the importance for a constitutional monarch to display political neutrality, I noted:

'When it comes to sounding unenthusiastic and uninterested in inspiring an audience, the Queen’s Speech is an example with few serious competitors. She has no qualms about being seen to be wearing spectacles, which underline the fact that she is reading carefully from the script she holds so obviously in front of her. Nor is she in the least bit inhibited about fixing her eyes on the text rather than the audience. Then, as she enunciates the sentences, her tone is so disinterested as to make it abundantly clear that she is merely reciting words written by someone else and about which she has no personal feelings or opinions whatsoever.'

As you'll see from the above, King Mohammed VI doesn't have any qualms about wearing his specs or about keeping his eyes glued to the text either. But having to rely on his translator makes it difficult for a non-speaker of Arabic like me to assess the tone of his speech.

But the context is, of course very different, because here is a king announcing some important-sounding steps along the road towards the establishment of a more constitutional monarchy - which is something about which he should presumably sound much more enthusiastic than the Queen ever does when she reads out words written by her government - providing, that is, that he really believes in the reforms he is proposing.

Related posts

Compared with certain other speeches in Arabic during the past six months, this is rather an impressive effort. Nor, interestingly, did any of the entrants in the doomed dictator speechwriting competition select the King of Morocco as someone in need of help - perhaps because they didn't consider him dictatorial or doomed enough.

• You don't need to speak Arabic to tell that Mubarak isn't much of an orator
• Dr Gadaffi comes to the rescue with a real 'tour de force'
• Results of the defend a doomed dictator speechwriting competition

How many numbers can you get into 20 seconds & has Balls exposed Brown as an amateur?

However reluctant ITN may be to show clips from speeches on News at 10 (see previous post), it only took them a few minutes to get an excerpt from this morning's speech by shadow chancellor Ed Balls posted on YouTube - for which thanks.

In the first clip below, you'll hear Mr Balls packing six numbers into 20 seconds.

At a rate of one every 3.33 seconds, he made his mentor seem a bit of an amateur: in a speech two years ago, Gordon Brown only managed to get nine numbers into 59 seconds at the much slower rate of one every 6.55 seconds.

You can compare their efforts in the following clips, where you'll see that both of them illustrate a rather important point about presentation. What intrigued me was just how much of what I'd written about Brown (HERE) could just have well been written about Balls:

'A few months ago, I made the point that Gordon Brown tends to pack far too much information into his speeches and still has to take notice of a crucial tip from Winston Churchill about simplicity.

'In his final press conference before the Summer recess, he was at it again. At one stage, as you can see below, he managed to mention nine numbers in less than a minute.

'The trouble is that a lot of people glaze over when numbers come at them so thick and fast – a problem that’s even worse if, as in this case, they’re delivered in a flat monotonous tone of voice.

'And the importance of speakers conveying enthusiasm for their subjects cannot be overestimated – for the very obvious reason that, if a speaker sounds bored by his or her subject matter, why should the audience feel any less bored, let alone be inspired by it?

'Add to this Mr Brown’s earnest facial expression and it's hardly surprising that he’s so often referred to dour’.'

Son of Brown?

Six months ago, David Cameron accused Ed Miliband of being the "son of Brown" (HERE). On this evidence, it's a title to which Ed Balls has a rather stronger claim.

Balls: 6 numbers in 20 seconds:

Brown: 9 numbers in 59 seconds: