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THE
SPEECHWRITER
FEBRUARY 2018 | VOLUME 20 europeanspeechwriters.org · ukspeechwritersguild.co.uk
Destination
Cambridge
Stephen Krupin talks to us about his
time in the Obama administration
1 BOOK REVIEW by Alan Barker
Yes we Cam!
Seven reasons to attend the 16th Speechwriters’ & Business Communicators’ Conference at
King’s College, Cambridge 11-13 April 2018
1. THE SPEAKERS
2. THE WORKSHOPS
You get to have a three-course meal with wine in King’s For programme details and ticket information, visit:
College Dining Hall. It’s the sort of thing Renaissance
www.europeanspeechwriters.org
rhetoricians would have done - share fantastic food and
conversation in glorious surroundings. And we have
solutions.
9 In persuasion, facts and statistics
aren’t terribly important to a cat.
4 When you find yourself in a
disagreement, set your target. Decide
Or to most people for that matter.
Instead, focus on what your audience
what your goal is - what you want to believes and expects.
aim at achieving.
Jay Heinrichs will be running a speechwriting workshop in London on Tuesday 27 February 2018.
See our website to register.
Fred Metcalf
Memorial Trophy
Last year, Fred Metcalf, David Frost’s former speechwriter
died. Fred was a keen supporter of the UK Speechwriters’
Guild. He attended three conferences and regaled us with his
one-liners every time.
On how to become a good speaker: “Practise all the time. “The best way to stay awake in an after-dinner speech is
One of the best ways is to put a bunch of marbles in your to give it.”
mouth while you talk. Slowly but surely you take away
a marble. And then, when you’ve lost all your marbles, “Some couples go over their budgets very carefully every
you’re a public speaker.” month, other just go over them.”
“Good ladies, evening and gentlemen… I knew I should “Advice to speakers: if you don’t know what to talk about,
have practised this speech.” talk about three minutes.”
anthology. Thankfully, it’s much more Collins develops his thesis into five claims.
interesting: Collins uses his collection of Politics gives voice to the people, promotes
25 speeches to buttress a powerful, and peace over war, speaks nations into being,
passionately argued, polemic. improves the condition of the people, and
tames the worst human instincts. “All of
Liberal democracy relies on vibrant public these virtues,” he writes, “require poetic
speech. But our democracy is in poor shape. political speech,” so he creates five main
“If we want to attend to the good health of sections, illustrated with a clutch of speeches
our democracy,” he writes, “…then we need and bookended with essays elaborating his
to attend to the integrity of the way we speak argument.
about politics.”
These essays are the most engaging
The illness is disillusionment. A recent poll parts of the book: so much so, in fact,
suggests that 38 per cent of British people that they threaten to overshadow the
are inclined to think that “democracy isn’t speeches themselves. Collins’ rhetorical
always the best way to run a country.” This commentaries are insightful but sporadic; I
might not be exactly the cynicism that Collins takes it to be; found myself making a separate collection of his aperçus.
at any rate, he suggests that it arises, in part, from liberal
democracy’s manifold successes. And those successes mean “One of the puzzles of Hitler’s rhetoric,” he writes, “is how
that there’s less to fight for; all too often, political speech has someone whose thinking was so disordered, in every sense
become dull. In fact, he suggests, “most political speeches of that term, could be so effective on the stage.” Rhetoric
today are unnecessary.” itself, maybe, provides the solution: the order he craved
could be constructed only on the podium.
But democracy will always face new conflicts and threats.
“It is the nature of human beings to disagree. Politics is As Collins writes: “the novelty in his rhetoric was to create
the means by which that division is recognised, negotiated a bound community, a Volksgemeinschaft, just by talking
and settled.” That’s why politics demands speech: “it is it into life… This is the trick of the shaman. He has created
in the spoken word that the defence of politics has to be a need and a Weltanshauung and claimed it was what the
conducted.” A speech is a performative act: it enacts the very people thought all along.” Nothing very odd there: this
process of politics. In this argument, rhetoric and politics binding power is what makes any speech successful. Binding
become virtually synonymous. is what rhetoric does. As Collins himself admits, “it is the
pinnacle of what every speaker would like to achieve; for
Disenchantment with politics fosters the illusion that there rhetoric to be true as soon as I say it, and because I say it.”
is an alternative. The current contender is populism, which
Collins condemns but perhaps doesn’t quite pin down. Political truth has to be talked into life. It’s never
It has, he suggests, “the rhetoric of a movement but the transcendent; it always emerges from the clash of arguments.
practice of a cult.” Because “it has no ideological content And, because, as La Rochefoucauld said, “the passions
beyond its resentment of an elite”, it requires a charismatic are the only orators that convince,” Collins argues that
leader to glue it together. If democracy – he quotes his hero democratic politics must rediscover “the principle of hope.”
Camus – is the system for those who know that they don’t That’s why rhetoric matters. We need a “better, more
know everything, the populist always claims to have all the enchanted politics.” The responsible democrat must describe
answers. what has gone awry and find words to speak a better future
into existence. “The spectre of utopia is profound fear; its
Democracy demands patience – “and patience,” he writes, promise is extraordinary hope. The purpose of politics is to
“is usually in short supply. Many distinguished people have contain the fear so that the hope can thrive.”
called for a short cut to utopia.” But, from Plato to Mao,
the politics of the shining path invariably leads to tyranny. Alan Barker
t
Pe of textbooks and trivia — broad themes punctuated
to:
the law has made people’s lives Pho with interesting if random details. Then I read Joseph
better — but how we can still improve Ellis’s Founding Brothers, which explores America’s early
upon it if we can summon the good faith to do so. That days by examining the personal relationships between its
night I incorporated his edits into the existing draft and pivotal characters. Ellis connected history with humanity
the following morning collected his next round of hand- through beautiful storytelling – an appealing perspective for
written additions. Toward the end of the flight to Miami, an aspiring political speechwriters.
the president called me into the conference room aboard Air
Force One to discuss the final changes. Are you familiar with any speeches delivered
by European politicians?
How many speechwriters worked with you at
I hear Pericles and Cicero were pretty good on a podium.
the White House?
Vaclav Havel’s 1990 address to the U.S. Congress defined
In addition to our colleagues on the Vice President’s democracy better than most members of that body have
and First Lady’s speechwriting teams, the articulated it. After having wrestled with the challenge of
presidential speechwriting team comprised a chief solving Syria while serving at the State Department, I was
speechwriter, three primarily domestic speechwriters, two impressed by Hilary Benn’s 2015 powerful example of policy
primarily foreign-policy speechwriters, a researcher and and passion in a speech to the House of Commons.
an intern. That would add up to eight, but in truth there
were nine of us; President Obama was far and away the best What’s your tip to young aspiring
speechwriter on staff. speechwriters?
First, writing is rewriting. First drafts and final drafts are
What’s your favourite Obama speech? never the same, so give yourself permission to get it wrong.
His speech on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, in Second, don’t wait for a speechwriting job or assignment to
Selma, Alabama, took my breath away. (I had no hand in its build your portfolio. Create opportunities to practise your
writing.) America at its best is an imperfect country that is, long-form, persuasive writing, even if those drafts never
as Obama said that day, “not yet finished,” “strong enough to see the light of day. And third, never forget that writing for
be self-critical,” and a nation that we can “remake … to more the ear is a fundamentally different dialect than writing
closely align with our highest ideals.” Delivered by our first for the eye.