tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post5672203262095496296..comments2024-03-28T07:16:39.621+00:00Comments on Lallands Peat Worrier: Review: Eck's speech in AviemoreLallands Peat Worrierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18276270498204697708noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-57334175477950662922010-03-22T20:51:49.514+00:002010-03-22T20:51:49.514+00:00Hythodaeus,
It seems we are too outsiderish! Perh...Hythodaeus,<br /><br />It seems we are too outsiderish! Perhaps some benevolent creature, closer to the central beam of the party or government might be willing to shed some light on the matter. If anyone reads this and would rather that their gracious illumination prove discreet - do just e-mail me at lallandspeatworrier@gmail.com. As it is, the radiance is decidedly scant.<br /><br />To return, in passing, to my initial post, although I was labouring the negative there - I'd also suggest that people find few things more impressive that <i>good, fluent</i> public speaking, particularly if it is done without notes. By running the risks of forgetting your words, you heighten the demonstration of prowess. Equally, there is a sense that such speechifying is also more authentic, as you are (at least visually) less readily associated with spouting lines, worked out by others. The text before you is a guilty thing, paper confirmation of your manipulative intent. Then, of course, there is the co-present meet and greet, the constituency flesh pressing. In that context, I imagine that folksy derring-do can go down quite well.Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-22478935256689050642010-03-22T20:25:25.649+00:002010-03-22T20:25:25.649+00:00I won't be quitting my day job just yet, Rab!
...I won't be quitting my day job just yet, Rab!<br /><br />That said, I do think anyone who writes speeches should have a good quantity of heroic poetry knocking about in their memory. On which point, I'd be only too pleased to produce an elegant range of Shakespeare knock-offs for SNP politicians. I forgot to mention it in the body of the piece, but Salmond also half-quoted a very famous, very good poem by Tennyson, <i>Ulysses</i>. <br /><br /><i>"We are part of all we have experienced..."</i>, quoth the Maximum Eck. Here is the Tennyson section which rings a bell:<br /><br /><i>"I am a part of all that I have met;<br />Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough<br />Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades<br />For ever and for ever when I move."</i><br /><br />Obviously a parsing. You may be familiar with the most famous political use of this poem, by the now-deceased Teddy Kennedy at the American Democratic Party Convention of 1980, in his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5cKYckTWEM" rel="nofollow">"The Dream Shall Never Die" speech.</a> Kennedy cut out some of the equivocating lines, but quoted from the poem's rousing finale...<br /> <br /><i>'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.<br />Push off, and sitting well in order smite<br />The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds<br />To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths<br />Of all the western stars, until I die.<br />It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:<br />It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,<br />And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.<br />Though much is taken, much abides; and though<br />We are not now that strength which in old days<br />Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;<br />One equal temper of heroic hearts,<br />Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will<br />To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."</i>Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-57129849743505022842010-03-22T18:49:44.352+00:002010-03-22T18:49:44.352+00:00He is a good speaker when he's doing it sponta...He is a good speaker when he's doing it spontaneously. Quite witty as well, which is something I've never really mastered in unprepared public speaking (not that I've ever been in quite the same situations that the FM has been in over the last four years). <br /><br />It would indeed be interesting to know who the people the speeches are. I know that Big Eck does retain a good few advisors, but they clearly aren't exactly publicly advertised.Hythlodaeushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13402232122699414720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-56895860425024646312010-03-22T18:08:38.925+00:002010-03-22T18:08:38.925+00:00Hi Lallands,
I don't know who writes Alex...Hi Lallands,<br /> <br />I don't know who writes Alex's speeches, but they could do a lot worse than steal the last paragraph of your article above for incorporation in one.<br /><br />Regards,Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-70072985561460355992010-03-21T17:25:14.556+00:002010-03-21T17:25:14.556+00:00Its a curious thought - but contrary to Jeff's...Its a curious thought - but contrary to Jeff's review previously - the Maximum Eck may sound better on <i>paper</i> than he did in rhetorical reality! Or at least, more convincing, with more flair for his text. That said, to my mind Salmond fares best without a set-script, in interviews of the contingent exchange of pelters that is FMQs. In many respects, this is a far more nimble enterprise than delivering a pat soliloquy with feeling...<br /><br />Your point does raise the inevitable <i>"West Wing"</i> question, however, Hythlodaeus - (or in the Scottish not-yet version to be called, less emblematically <i>'Bute House'</i>) - who is Salmond's Sam Seaborn, his Toby Ziegler? It is a dimension of politics which, as an outsider, you are left with no sense of - particularly in the context of Scotland. How are the speeches generated? Who has a say, has a look, or is consulted?<br /><br />Interesting stuff to speculate on.Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-27957744116399052592010-03-21T11:40:42.620+00:002010-03-21T11:40:42.620+00:00I must agree with you about Big Eck's natural ...I must agree with you about Big Eck's natural speaking talent. I read the speech he did in Edinburgh East a few weeks back, and it sounded like it should be a rousing, stirring thing, delivered with bombast. It was written with very good pacing and emphasis to allow this. <br /><br />None of which Alex Salmond actually took advantage of. It wasn't a bad speech, but if someone else had delivered it, then it could have been brilliant.Hythlodaeushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13402232122699414720noreply@blogger.com