After I spoke at the CPAC conference, I was talking to one of the organisers about the ease of public speaking. She told me that she found conversation comfortable, but not addressing people from the stage. I suggested that the two are essentially the same, but I ought to have added that a speech needs structure in a way an informal discussion does not.
This has remained in my mind after listening on Friday to Andy Burnham’s first speech as leader of the Labour Party, for it failed in its structure, content, and delivery. As I want the country to be well-governed, I wish Andy Burnham well, and therefore hoped for some inspiration from his opening words. But it was a poor specimen of the politician’s craft, so I thought it worth writing about how to make a speech.
Our ancestors attached great importance to rhetoric. It was studied, and taught by Aristotle and Cicero. This interest continued down the ages, so that Thomas Hobbes, the famous philosopher, wrote a book entitled The Art of Rhetoric (1637).
Yet the modern age seems less concerned with it, to the detriment of political life. In his books, Hobbes set out the four points of a speech: the Proeme, the Propositions, the Proofs, and the Epilogue. He described the Proeme as resembling an overture in music or the prologue of a play. It introduces and sets the tone.
