Opinion / Writing and Language

Brexit v UKinEU (22): Not Trivial Questions

Here’s the final version (in Polish – thanks Google Translate) of an interview I have given to Wiadomości about sundry Brexit issues. They did not use everything I said (and why should they?). Here’s the full text in case anyone is interested: 1. Both campaigns seem to have indulged in […]

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Brexit v UKinEU (19): Tone and Message

As this tumultuous (or horrible, nasty, revolting, angry, hateful, absorbing, glorious – pick your adjective) UK exercise in referendum democracy nears the end, what about the way the two broad camps have presented themselves? Leave The Leave tendency has struggled to explain exactly what it wants instead of EU membership, and […]

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Jo Cox and Binary Politics

Here are two strong pieces on the appalling killing of Jo Cox MP and what (they say) it tells us about other things, including ourselves. They are by some chance related. The first by Alex Massie at the Spectator: So, no, Nigel Farage isn’t responsible for Jo Cox’s murder. And […]

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Brexit v UKinEU (7): Cambridge Union Debate

So. Off to Cambridge tomorrow, to take part in a Cambridge Union debate: This House Believes The UK is better off in the EU This one raises interesting public speaking challenges. It’s a high-powered debate, not a conference presentation or lecture or TV interview. There has to be a goodly […]

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Speeches for Leaders: Cicero Awards 2016

My methods work (as if any of you doubted it). A speech I drafted for Sir John Sawers on the broad themes of Technology, Security, Freedom has won a 2016 Cicero Award over in the USA under the Public Policy heading. The Cicero 2016 Grand Award went to Dain Dunston for […]

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Brexit v UKinEU (5): The Blogs

Back in the day when this blog generated new material like a whirling dervish on heat, I contributed to the BritBlog Roundup – a self-appointed group of bloggers who took it upon themselves to assemble more or less thematic round-ups from the blogosphere as a contribution to the common weal. […]

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Brexit v UKinEU (2)

Here’s a link to the original documents comprising the UK/EU ‘settlement’ that are the basis for PM David Cameron now campaigning for a Yes vote. So, question. Is the settlement ‘legally binding’? Yes! says Mr Cameron. No! says the Brexit tendency. A highly simplified analysis of this question is given by the BBC: The Vienna Convention on the Law of […]

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Brexit v UKinEU (1)

Battle is joined. In the coming weeks the bemused UK public will mull over the pros and cons of the UK’s EU membership, and then give their view in a fateful referendum in June. As US ambassador-poet James Russell Lowell put it in the C19: Once to every man and […]

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Risky Speeches

+++ Update +++ Needless to say, mocking Mrs Clinton for barking like a dog (see below) opens a sinkhole of sexism. What drivel. * * * * * My book Speeches for Leaders (signed hard copy available outside North America here) has a whole chapter devoted to the issue of ‘risk’ […]

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Public Diplomacy: Stupid Words

I am busy on my latest webinar series for international officials on Speechwriting and Talking-Points. I proclaim into my computer and they watch wherever they are around the planet. Haha I tidied the room behind me. One of the core ideas that always strikes home like a thunderbolt in a […]

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