You turn if you want too, the lady’s not for turning. Margaret Thatcher delivered a lengthy (40min) speech on October 8th, 1980 to the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton, UK. She had a lot to say and there is much to analyse, but this phrase lives on in...
It’s that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sisters’ keeper — that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. “E pluribus...
Back in March 2015 Bill Gates delivered a TED Talk declaring that the greatest risk of global catastrophe would come from a highly infectious virus. He then displayed this image on the screen. Chilling. Now as the world battles to cope with the Novel Caronavirus...
“…no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory party that inflicted those bitter experiences on me. So far as I am concerned, they are lower than vermin.”Aneurin...
Reflecting on a Betty Friedan speech in March 1970, in honour of her legacy on the occasion of International Women’s Day. “We need an instant revolution against sexual oppression.” In 1970, 50 years after American women were awarded the right to...
“Just a mile or two from the place where the first European settlers landed, in too many ways it tells us that their failure to bring much more than devastation and demoralisation to Aboriginal Australia continues to be our failure.”Prime Minister Paul...
“My fellow citizens, we stand at the threshold of a new decade. The 2020s can be good years.” A few hours before the strike of midnight, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed her country with a speech embued with determination and hope. In this speech,...
A Message of Warning to Men of Science J. Robert Oppenheimer addressed the Association of Los Alamos Scientists on November 2nd, 1945. In 1939 Franklin Roosevelt created the Manhattan Project – an Anglo-American project for the research and development of...
A Campaign Speech to Unite a Divided Country and win an election… There are many, many examples of Boris Johnson at the podium. The Tory victory in the recent UK election owes a great deal to the rhetorical skill displayed by Boris Johnson. Love him or hate him,...
The Outrage of a Child Greta Thunberg speaks at the Davos World Economic Forum, 21 January 2020 How can a diminutive 17-year-old girl from Sweden hold her ground in front of an audience of world leaders at Davos? A rhetorical analysis of her speech provides some...