Thursday, September 22, 2011

Max Atkinson looks at Nick Clegg's speech

Max Atkinson detects one plus and two minuses in Nick Clegg's speech to the Liberal Democrat Conference in Birmingham.

The plus is that he abandoned his attempt to imitate David Cameron's walkabout, apparently unscripted style of delivery: "If you want to look more like a statesman than a management guru, that's the way to do it."

And the minuses are his decision to have people in the background as he spoke and his line "not easy, but right", which Max thinks sounded too like "right wing".

Max also looks at the evolution of the staging of these events:
Back in the 1970s and 80s, party leaders used to speak from a platform, surrounded by colleagues all around them - until, that is, Harvey Thomas (former impresario for Billy Graham's UK crusades) got involved in staging Conservative Party conferences, where Mrs Thatcher was set apart from the rest so that any signs of audience dissent or doziness couldn't be seen by viewers at home. 
Neil Kinnock quickly followed suit - and with very good reason. I have another video from one of his earliest leader's speeches, in which Dennis Skinner and Joan Maynard (aka 'Stalin's aunty') sat behind him eating sweets, shaking their heads and generally looking very cross.

No comments: