Imagine the elation you must feel as a speech writer when the words you have written for the leader of a political party are met with a standing ovation.
Then imagine the embarrassment and sense of dread you must feel when it is revealed in the media that parts of the speech were reportedly taken from a speech written in the 1980s.
That’s the situation faced by the people behind the speech written for new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the party’s conference in Brighton.
According to some reports his speech used passages from a speech written by a freelance speechwriter, called Neil Hellor, which it subsequently emerged had been offered to every Labour leader since Neil Kinnock.
It may have been emotive and, as a party spokesman suggested ‘captured what he wanted to say to the British public’ but it does little to reinforce the ‘new politics’ image the party has been trying to portray. There is a clear lesson for speech writers here.
But, this aside, how did Mr Corbyn perform on the big stage?
His performance started positively with some rousing statistics about the number of people who had joined the party recently – a welcome message for a party still licking its wounds from General Election defeat. In fact the defeat was not mentioned at all.
But, this early momentum was somewhat lost, when he launched into a tedious and lengthy list of people he wanted to thank. This included his predecessor Ed Miliband, all of the other candidates in the party leadership election, everyone who took part in that election and his new shadow cabinet.
It was not a speech packed with sound bites, owing to its somewhat rambling nature where he sometimes discussed a subject, moved on to another topic and then went back to the original subject sometime later.
The fine tuning of messages will probably come with time and help to generate more of an impact, but a few phrases stuck in the mind. Talking about the culture of open debate he is trying to instigate within Labour he said: “I do not believe that any one of us has a monopoly on wisdom and ideas. We all have ideas and a vision on how things could be better.” On the economy he said: “The Tories’ austerity is the outdated and failed approach of the past”. He added that they had created ‘an economy that works for the few but not for the many’. And, finally, on there being other ways of doing politics he said: “You don’t have to take what you are given.”
There was also humour (something definitely needed in a 58 minute speech) when Mr Corbyn addressed some of the recent media stories about him. Talking about a story in The Times which said he was known for riding a ‘Chairman Mao style bicycle’, he said: “Less thorough journalists might have referred to it as just a bicycle, but no, so we have to conclude that whenever we see somebody on a bicycle from now on, there goes another supporter of Chairman Mao.” Gentle, but effective humour and a good way of getting an audience on side.
Just a few months ago Mr Corbyn would not have dared to imagine he would be delivering this speech. Yet there were no signs of nerves on the big stage. In fact he appeared relaxed, confident and energised. You sensed he was comfortable on that stage. Yes he was playing in front of a supportive home crowd, but that crowd was expectant and needed a morale boost.
He will certainly face tougher challenges, particularly when he tries to appeal to those outside of his party’s supporters. But this was a speech aimed at Labour members and he delivered what his audience wanted to hear, leaving the hall to a standing ovation.
Mr Corbyn is likely to have four more conference speeches to strengthen his messages and develop a theme to pull together the sometimes disjointed parts of what he wants to say. He will also need to find a way of talking to those beyond the walls of the conference arena.
Whether that will be enough, only time will well. Either way, as with other prominent figures, an analysis of his speech can be interesting and useful to those looking to give effective speeches and presentations.
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