You have to hand it to George Soros. When he goes for it, he hits the target big. Look at this speech arguing that the introduction of Eurobonds is by far the best way to solve the Eurozone’s (and EU’s existential crisis). I myself have no idea what a Eurobond […]
How many readers have not sat through a truly horrible PowerPoint-style presentation in the recent past? Those precious seconds of your life. Lost. Forever. Luckily I have taken it upon myself to work out exactly why so many PowerPoint presentations end up so awful: The problem lies in the very […]
My latest piece at Punditwire, where I note with horror that the Milibandistic dry rot of filling speeches with meaningless – but also intellectually shifty – musty/needs exhortations has spread all the way across the Atlantic to President Obama’s speechwriters: … his [Obama’s] recent well received speech in Israel, where […]
Sydney Kentridge QC is at last retiring. Here is a Wikipedia summary of his remarkable legal career. And here is my account of watching him in action in Bloemfontein back in 1988, when the case of the Sharpeville Six (six Africans sentenced to death for the ‘common purpose’ murder of […]
Further thoughts on the speech by President Obama in Israel (scroll down to see the earlier post from my PunditWire piece below). This time prompted by analysis over at Foreign Policy. First, Hussein Ibish who thought that he did a terrific job: The psychological, communication and political skill that was […]
Swing by National Review Online to catch up on conservative views on President Obama’s visit to Israel and what do you find? Not much. In fact almost nothing. Which goes to show just how strikingly well Obama did in behaving warmly towards Israel. Yes, the ‘optics’ of Obama appearing under […]
Just back from this year’s Churchill Public Speaking Competition for schools at glorious Blenheim Palace. The format is interesting – and oddly difficult. Each school has a Chairperson, Speaker and Questioner. Within a timeframe of some ten minutes the Chair has to introduce the school and the team, then hand […]
Another piece by me at PunditWire that looks at a magnificent example of using language to demonstrate that ‘really’ the issue is about something else. Not a disaster. But the speaker’s gloriously moral and meritorious response to it: I promised both the government and the NHS that I would see […]
Preparations chez Crawford are intensifying for next week’s fine Churchill Public Speaking Project event at Blenheim Palace at which schools compete to deliver powerful presentations on a number of possible themes. Here’s the list of subjects. Events like this help motivate children (and, ahem, their parents) to look at the […]
I am pleased and honoured to tell you that I have been accepted as part of the Punditwire team. Punditwire is a US website featuring the views of many top American speechwriters on current events.The list of contributors is daunting. A group of fine people from many different shades of […]
