Here for MLK Day 2016 is my new piece for Diplomatic Courier, looking at a less well-known speech by Martin Luther King back in 1957 He deftly juxtaposes extreme optimism with extreme pessimism: The extreme optimist and the extreme pessimist have at least one thing in common: they both agree that […]
My latest DIPLOMAT article on migration and refugees had this dismally prescient passage (emphasis added here): According to the Office of The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in 2014 on average some 40,000 people a day were driven from their homes by conflict or persecution and compelled to find […]
Once again I return to the Foreign Office for the annual ceremony of remembrance for FCO colleagues who have fallen in the line of duty. See this earlier account that tells of some of the names on the list. The name of a locally engaged Afghan employee who worked with […]
Sad news that Lord Howe has died. I had the great honour to serve as FCO speechwriter for him from 1985-87 when he was Foreign Secretary. Of course back then before email and word-processors speechwriting was a ponderous business, with drafts being typed and retyped on hi-tech golfball typewriters by […]
Back from the Professional Speechwriters Association conference in Washington. A pleasure to meet so many smart and engaging professionals from the wide and varied world of speechwriting. Not least the pugnacious but gracious Hal Gordon, a co-contributor to PunditWire, whose startling knowledge of Othello puts me well to shame. And many others. […]
On Saturday I head back to the USA for this year’s Professional Speechwriters Association conference in Washington DC next week. My task is to lead a session next Wednesday on the following tricky theme: Career: So you want to expand your rhetorical reach? What you must know to write speeches […]
My latest piece for the Telegraph this morning has another look at Syria, and notes with gloomy satisfaction that my thoughts on this subject several years ago have been proven correct: I hate to say that I told you so. But I did. I said it in February 2012: The […]
Let’s look at President Putin’s UN speech, as given by the Kremlin website in English here. For public-speaking fanatics it’s interesting to compare the Kremlin English version with a version as it came through the interpreters – here. He quickly gets into his stride, explaining why the veto power of […]
+++ Update+++ Is this one now off? The West Brom Chairman has gone very public explaining why Mr Berahino will not be moving any time soon: “I have informed Saido that he will not be transferred during this summer window and that he is staying at the club” said Peace […]
I am pleased to say that work is in hand to produce a new print version of my book Speechwriting for Leaders, now being reworked and improved as Speeches for Leaders. In that book I talk about ‘authenticity’ and Boris Johnson: The British politician Boris Johnson shows how to do […]
