06/04/2010

Gordon Brown and David Cameron spoke today

Today, I listened on BBC News in direct, to the two leader's speeches.

Perhaps, if you go and try it fast, you can do it on the Internet, but for sure, somewhere they can be found, later on too.

What I would like to find, and did not yet, are the texts of their speech of today.

Two speeches, that we study and learn from them, compare them.

Learn as much about what was very good from them and what were the less successful parts, we can become then more and more competent speakers.

First I listened to Cameron's speech not far from the parliament, outside, on the Thames river board. He has invited to listen some of his party workers, chosen with care what kind of people he wanted to reflect on him.

Cameron used a lot of very good rhetorical devices, that we can be inspired to do, repetitions, inversions, and also a bit changed, Kennedy's big winner phrase. "Do not ask..." But a lot more. He delivered all the speech with enthusiasm and without any notes.

Those were the good parts.

What message come across?

We need a change. We will change.

Without re-reading, only general things, nothing concrete. The only concrete were the things that they will not change, as the Labor proposes now. Not that, not this, and so on.

Very clever speech, but for me not memorable, unless I will be able to study its details. As the commentator said, it was more an "against" speech then "for" - all different from Barak Obama's speech, who always speaks "for".

Gordon Brown come out with all his cabinet to speak, after the Parliament dissolution was accepted by the Queen officially. He spoke before the 10, Downing Street, announcing that.

Immediately after he spoke of himself as middle class man of a middle class family. He ended his speech, with "I am one of a group". I'll have to find the exact words, it was a lot better, rhetorical.

In the middle, he gave concrete measures, that most of us want of course. The most, I remember, as just dawn with a cold "Each will be able to call a doctor at home, even on weekend and evening." But there were some others, for each.

He did not speak with passion, but with power. And also without any note of course. He did repeat a phrase, that he did not remember perhaps well at the first, or wanted to emphasis. As he did it with a lot of aplomb, it did not come out like a mistake of course.

I did learn from both speech, and you could too. This month elections are a huge learning experience for us, if we look at it with our Toastmaster, Public Speaker point of view.

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