No public-school bullshit Credit: Leon Neal/Getty
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The most arresting opening to a wedding speech I have come across started thus: “Being asked to give the Best Man’s speech is a bit like being asked to have sex with the Queen Mother.” The audience gasped, clearly a little embarrassed. He then come to the point: “It’s a great honour but nobody really wants to do it.” Jerry Seinfeld also has a good line on public speaking. “Speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person. I found that amazing. Number two was death. This means that to an average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you would rather to be in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Our new Prime Minister would seem to be in this camp. She is awkward behind the lectern, nervous of public speaking and wooden in her delivery. She seems untrustworthy. Oh the irony. Boris Johnson was the least trustworthy Prime Minister in living memory, but he papered over his character flaws with rhetorical bluster. And that made him feel “relatable”.
Even his faults and his vanity were requisitioned to the cause. Better a cad that you know than a saint that you don’t.
Truss at the lectern simply doesn’t perform. There is no polish or flamboyant public-school bullshit. She doesn’t let you in with self-deprecating humour. But could we come to see this as a mark of authenticity? She is reassuringly dull: dull in a not-Boris kind of way. In a way that might elicit an increasing sympathy and identification for her comprehensive straightforwardness. More like Seinfeld’s “average person”. She might be poor in front of camera, but perhaps she will be far better behind the scenes.
Boris’ last speech as PM was full of his usual tricks. Lots of looking around and eye contact, pointing towards people, responding to their noise, making them feel he was talking directly to them. Lots of expansive hand gestures, body movement, voice modulation, banging the podium, fist clenching. He looked down at his text, but he looked up much more. He was fully present to others; at least, that was the impression. And even when saying goodbye, it felt like he was enjoying himself with words.
By contrast, Truss was rigid. She didn’t extemporise and she stuck to the script. She talked straight to the camera. Occasionally, she remembered that she had been told to smile — so did so mid-sentence, a grin that seemed unconnected to the words she was reading out. There were no pauses or modulations of the voice. It was boring.
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SubscribeI thought she was excellent in her first PMQ yesterday. Calm, clear, straightforward – repeating her message while answering the questions put. And she hardly raised her voice. She may be wrong but she certainly left me feeling more confident about our future than all the cavilling opeds about her over the ast few weeks.
I’m taking a stand-back-and-watch approach to Liz Truss. I have not been keen thus far, but I was impressed at how unflappable she was when Rishi kept interrupting her in the 2nd (?) debate. That would have wound me up no end but she really conducted herself well.
Liz knows the biz hopefully.
Hear, hear!
A long time ago but Mrs Thatcher in her 1979 + days was a pretty awful orator. With elocution lessons and polishing she became a force to be reckoned with. All we need now is Starmer to fall over on a beach. He’s half way there with the him and Ange kneeling photo.
Who would you pick for Prime Minister? One who knows what a woman is and one who doesn’t?
I humbly take back my sarcastic, cynical and satirical comments on Truss… So far so good, both in PMQ and cabinet appointments… and the ‘ little things” like no 10 order of dress…
Giles would appreciate the ‘repentant sinner’ gesture!
There’s been so much hot air, energy and road miles unnecessarily expended during this interminable period of the leadership contest, i’m surprised the poor woman still has her voice intact. And to convince whom? The Tory membership.
Anyone making predictions about how good or not she might be as a PM is a political fool. Her delivery of set speeches may improve, but will anyone really be bothered if they don’t come election time if she has navigated a pathway through our current problems?
She looks so vulnerable in the picture waiting for the mass critism to arrive. My heart goes out to her. I hope she does well and that she can count on good friends and family. I think she will need them.
Yes, indeed. Reminds me of the well known quote, “If a politician wants a friend they should buy a dog”.