You are a senior politician. How to stay sharp in public debates? Here’s a clue. Don’t spend four years running away from difficult questions: "Obama was out of practice and unprepared to be challenged. The White House had supposed that Obama’s forays into social media — town hall meetings with […]
Even the BBC has to concede: Romney ‘won’ the debate, massively. As diligent readers here know, it’s not what you say – it’s what you hear. And much of what you hear when someone is speaking is subliminal – all about eye-contact, body posture, energy, openness, positive enthusiasm. Mitt Romney […]
One of the point of this blog is that I write in detail only about things I know something about. So if you want detailed analysis of politics in Latin America or Sri Lanka or Nigeria (and above all in the Middle East) you’ll just have to go somewhere else. […]
As a former diplomat turned wannabe speechwriter I have studied closely the latest Conference speech by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. How to assess it from a technical point of view? And what does it tell us about a possible future Prime Minister’s approach to the great foreign policy issues […]
Over at the FT is a magnificent article by Samuel Brittan that with unerring precision demolishes certain arguments often put forward for why the European Union ‘must’ be supported. I subscribe to the FT online edition so it may be paywalled and unable to be seen by some readers. If so, […]
I have written here previously on Message, Structure, Story and Signposts in public speaking. See eg here. This piece (c/o the ever-excellent Browser) is a super look at how to structure a movie plot by telling a simple story. It works for speeches too: Here is my detailed description of […]
An interesting and instructive visit to Riga for this year’s Riga Conference. Thoughts. First, Riga itself. Latvia took an enormous (and partly self-imposed) hit as the Euro zone crisis began, opting for radical austerity measures. Views now differ. Yes, the economy is growing once again at a pretty good rate. […]
This Tweet is so nice and unexpected I think that I need to share it: Stephen Pollard@stephenpollard I must say @CharlesCrawford really is superb. Tweets and blog posts are always really worth reading. Stephen himself is no slouch when it comes to good writing – including resorting as needed to the old trick […]
Great piece on the mess created by the US Embassy in Cairo, Tweeting away in defiance of State Department instructions. FCO social media bunnies: beware what you can unleash. What seems profound, important and even witty on a far-flung computer screen may look glib, inappropriate and utterly irresponsible once the […]
Off tomorrow to this year’s Riga Conference, the distinguished Northern Europe security and wider policy forum. My first time at this event. Plenty of meat on the menu, including legendary Polish economist and intellectual Lesek Balcerowicz on the subject of the Eurozone. I appear in full hoot at Night Owl […]
