Fame! My piece on Speechwriting and Spontaneity has been picked up by leading US speechwritings experts Inkwell Strategies: The crux of Crawford’s argument is that speakers and their audiences value authenticity above all else. The best way to achieve that, he says, is to craft a speech in a way […]
Here’s my new piece over at Huffington Post UK on the ever fascinating subject of Speechwriting and Authenticity (and Spontaneity). It was prompted by this one by Max Atkinson which obliquely referred to my presentation at the recent UK Speechwriters’ Guild event and suggested that I was one of several […]
I fear that the Prime Minister was ill-advised to allow his name to be attached to an astonishly bad and strange letter sent to ‘Presidents’ Van Rompuy and Barroso by twelve national EU member state leaders. Parts of it was written by the EU’s version of our old friend the […]
Here’s my latest LSE book review, on a new book by Charlie Beckett with James Ball describing the rise and fall of Wikileaks: One of the key advantages of WikiLeaks as seen by its avowedly radical ‘hacktivist’ creators led (loosely speaking) by Julian Assange is that it subverts all existing […]
My piece over at Telegraph Blogs about language teaching and learning in UK schools has attracted 226 comments so far. First, an apology to Will Hutton. My piece said that Hutton’s Guardian article on this subject did not make clear that learning languages is hard work. Openmind2010 points out that […]
Will Hutton’s recent misleading piece in the Guardian about the decline in language learning in UK skills needed some serious demolition. And here it is, by me over at Telegraphs Blogs: … in my experience both at school and later at the late FCO Language Centre, a big part of the […]
Long time no write. Somewhere between Writer’s Block and despair at the surging stupidity seen in all directions. Plus nursing my aching ankle and visiting Liechtenstein on a new ADRg Ambassadors training expedition. The roleplays in Liechtenstein included a couple of exercises where chairing a meeting was part of the […]
My latest book review for LSE books was sent in the other day. A review of a compilation of blog writings by successful ex-blogger and junior Minister (under Labour) Tom Harris MP. Here’s the review. I was none too charitable, alas. The whole thing looked like a rather poor rushed […]
Part of the problem facing the Eurozoners as they struggle to convince global markets that all is under control so DON’T PANIC is identifying what exactly is the issue which needs solving. After all, they might make a bad situation worse by misdiagnosing what needs to be done. Views on […]
A reader sent me this email message on New Year’s Eve: I just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed reading your sane and authoritative commentaries over the last year. "Spark of hope" indeed! More power to you! What a kind thought. Sane. Authoritative. Hopeful. Powerful. Yup – that’s this website! […]
