Regular readers of this blog know that I've been getting exasperated by the growing obsession of leading British politicians with making important speeches at strange times and at peculiar venues.
David Cameron's much heralded speech on Europe was given at 8.30 a.m. in the morning at the London headquarters of an American news agency and was, in effect, a press release thinly disguised as a 'speech' ... A week or so later, George Osborne turned up to read another press release at the offices of JP Morgan in Bournemouth ...
Today, Mr Osborne's aides excelled themselves with the selection of a venue - a Morrisons supermarket distribution centre somewhere in Kent - for another important 'speech'/'press release' on the government's latest benefit changes - most of which had, as usual, been available in all this morning's newspapers and/or online long before he arrived to read out the 'speech' ...
As with the earlier two by Cameron and Osborne, there was no coughing, sneezing, applause, cheering, booing or indeed any other evidence that there was actually an audience there in the warehouse (or was it a corridor?) listening to his every word, or indeed any of his words...In fact Max is so exasperated that he is offering two of his books as prizes in a competition. To win one of them you have to propose when, where and to whom any UK politician of your choice should give his or her next major 'speech'. You may also add what the subject matter of the speech should be.
Full details on Max's blog.
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