down the ages. Apart from anything else, it was so long that it was always said to have begun when the light was ReportReport slowly fading, on a summer evening in June, and when he sat down, dawn was distinctly visible through the windows on the other side of the chamber. Speeches and speech-makers But broadly, Gladstone was the first great mass orator. Gladstone made an Fringe meeting, September 2001, with Roy Jenkins, art out of mass oratory; to some extent, Max Atkinson and Paddy Ashdown Disraeli came along behind him. And when I was in the latter stage of my life Report by Duncan Brack of Gladstone, one of the things that most intrigued me was what was the secret of Gladstone’s mass oratory. His he Liberal Democrat History other kind. Rhetoric and oratory may parliamentary oratory I can under- Group’s latest publication, well have had a bad press in recent stand; he rarely gave the House of T Great Liberal Speeches (re- years, but readers of this book will Commons less than two and half viewed in this issue of the Journal of surely be thankful that it consists of hours. In the country he was more Liberal Democrat History by Conrad speeches rather than transcripts of restrained; an hour and forty minutes Russell), was launched at the Liberal interviews. They can therefore look was about his average. But what was Democrat autumn conference in forward to reading carefully devel- the quality that made him hold his Bournemouth. oped arguments in language robust audience? – say, in the Waverley Market Ably chaired and introduced by enough to have survived the immedi- at Edinburgh, where , people Paddy Ashdown, a capacity audience ate moment of delivery to become a were present, and several of them was addressed first by Max Atkinson, a form of historical literature. fainted and had to be carried out over freelance communications consultant the heads of the others, for an hour and Roy Jenkins’ speech, fulsomely ad- and Visiting Professor at Henley forty minutes, for a detailed analysis of mired in The Times by Matthew Parris, Management College, and author of Disraeli’s budgetary policy. is reproduced here verbatim: the excellent book on political rheto- He didn’t make many jokes. He had ric, Our Masters’ Voices. His talk was a quite a good, if rather boisterous, sense I’m going to talk about Liberal oratory, concise version of his introduction to of fun in private, but he was not a great in a reflective historical context. I begin Great Liberal Speeches, ‘Mere rhetoric?’, wit in public. He never remotely with , when the Liberal Party was so we do not summarise it here – buy played down to his audience. What was effectively founded, in Willis’ Rooms in the book and read it! the secret that enabled him to hold London. The great scene there was that Essentially he argued that political these great audiences, largely of Lord Palmerston shook hands with rhetoric was an important communica- working people, as they were then Lord John Russell – he hadn’t done for tions skill; furthermore, although some called, and make them come back for a long time past. John Bright was also politicians have an innate talent for it, there. The great beneficiary of that everyone can study and learn it, and Paddy Ashdown and Roy Jenkins (photo: coming together was Gladstone, though improve their ability to put over their Peter Dollimore) Gladstone, ironically, was not present – message. He lamented the propensity of he was still detached, in his Peelite modern broadcasters to downplay the mode, at that stage. importance of speeches and to transmit He was the first great orator of the only soundbites and their own interpre- Liberal Party – although Palmerston tations of the speakers’ words – and also should by no means be entirely to play up the importance of interviews, dismissed. The thing was that ‘however sterile and tedious they may Palmerston hardly ever spoke outside be’. As he argued: the House of Commons, or, say, a Lord One piece of evidence to which their Mayor’s banquet in the City of Lon- attention should be drawn is the fact don. He did make one great speech, in that editors and publishers of books the market place at Tiverton, for which do not seem to find televised he was Member of Parliament (and interviews interesting, inspiring or about five other constituencies, not all provocative enough to merit the at the same time), but broadly he was a publication of collections of Great parliamentary orator, and certainly his Interviews, whether Liberal or of any  Civis Romanus Sum speech echoes

Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 35 more on future occasions? I decided, and by that he meant Asquith, who them with him. The example I give of after a good deal of reflection, that it would come and destroy the arguments that is a passage, not the best known of was essentially that although he spoke a of the opposition with a relentless logic. the passages from his Limehouse bit above their heads, he elevated their And although I would put Asquith very oration in July , dealing with the appreciation of themselves. He made high amongst Prime Ministers of this fairly narrow subject, you might have them feel that they were more impor- century – certainly third, maybe for real thought, of the mineral rights duty in tant in the world than they thought political genius Churchill and Lloyd his Budget of that year, directed to when they came in. A very good George exceeded him, maybe Attlee ran setting up a miners’ welfare fund. example of that, I think, was given in him close, as someone who could hold ‘Have you ever been down a coal his speech at the end of the first a reforming government together, but I mine?’ he said. ‘I went down one the Midlothian Campaign of , when would certainly put Asquith third other day. We sank into a pit half a mile in West Lothian, he started: ‘It is the amongst the Prime Ministers , as the deep. We then walked underneath the honour of England which is at stake’ – Peel of the twentieth century, and that is mountain, and we did about three- couldn’t get away with that in West no mean tribute to anybody – in the quarters of a mile with rock and shale Lothian today – ‘ a great trial is now days of his premiership, he probably above us. The earth seemed to be proceeding before the nation. We have depended less upon oratory than any straining – around us and above us – to none of the forum of a judicial trial. other major Prime Minister except for crush us in. You could see the pit-props There are no peers in Westminster Attlee – who certainly didn’t depend bent and twisted and sundered until Hall. There are no judges on the upon oratory. you saw their fibres split in resisting the Woolsack. But if we concentrate our Greater oratory was in a way sup- pressure. Sometimes they give way, and mind upon the truth of the case, apart plied by his daughter Violet – Violet then there is mutilation and death. from its mere exterior, it is a grander Bonham-Carter as she became – and Often a spark ignites, the whole pit is and more august spectacle than was my only criticism of this admirable deluged in fire, and the breath of life is ever exhibited either in Westminster book of speeches is that, while it scorched out of hundreds of breasts by Hall or in the House of Lords – a includes one from her, it does not the consuming flame … And yet nation called to undertake a great and include her truly great speech at the when the Prime Minister and I knock responsible duty, a duty on which luncheon in the National Liberal Club at the door of these great landlords, and depends the peace of Europe and the after Asquith had been humiliatingly say to them: “Here, you know these destinies of England.’ defeated in East Fife in  – we had poor fellows who have been digging That was an example of his style, to wait a long time for Menzies up royalties at the risk of their lives, which, may, as I say, enormously Campbell to avenge that defeat – and some of them are old, they have increased the self-esteem of his audi- was re-elected for Paisley in . In survived the perils of their trade, they ence. And as people like their self- that speech in the National Liberal are broken, they can earn no more. esteem being increased – we all of us Club – and unfortunately her oratory Won’t you give them something do – that, I think, if one gets to the wasn’t entirely immediately fulfilled – towards keeping them out of the core of it, was the secret of his remark- she contrasted the thin range of chairs workhouse?” they scowl at us, and we able oratorical power. inside the House of Commons with the say: “Only a ha’penny, just a copper.” Going on to former Liberal leaders, great crowd which welcomed him back They say: “You thieves!” … If this is an Gladstone was followed briefly by outside. ‘Hold on’, she said, ‘hold on, we indication of the view taken by these Rosebery. Rosebery I regard as one of are coming’. Well, we are coming now, great landlords of their responsibility to the most inflated reputations of who- but it’s some time after that. Violet was a the people who at the risk of life create ever got to the top of politics. He was a remarkable female orator. their wealth, then I say their day of florid orator, with a certain flamboy- And then we come to Lloyd reckoning is at hand.’ ance; he once hit a lectern with such George, and his contrast both with Now, Churchill – a strong supporter, force that the typically very large ruby Gladstone before him, and Churchill junior partner with Lloyd George as a in his ring sprang out of it and ran after him – because Churchill qualifies constructive radical in those days – down the centre aisle of the hall. But I as a Liberal orator, at any rate in the could never have done that. This have not a great respect for Rosebery. early days, up to . Compared with passage in which Lloyd George made Campbell-Bannerman was a cosy Gladstone, Lloyd George had far less his East End audience feel the tensions leader; a very good healing leader for range of knowledge, classical and other, and terrors of life underground, the party when it needed one. Then and far less intellectual range – but he though very few of them had ever there was Asquith. Asquith made his was a far more seductive orator than been nearer a coal mind than Padding- reputation as a great logical debater. In either Gladstone before him or ton Station, could never have been the two and quarter years of Campbell- Churchill after him. Both of them done by Churchill. He might have Bannerman’s premiership, whenever spoke at their audiences, Churchill extolled the place of coal, and conse- there was a difficult issue in the House even more than Gladstone, but Lloyd quently of miners, in Britain’s island of Commons, Campbell-Bannerman George insinuated himself into the story, the rise of the national wealth of always said: ‘send for the sledgehammer’, mind of his audiences, and carried Great Britain. He would have done it

36 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 with phrases more elevated than Lloyd defended lease-lend, by saying that ‘if that good in the present House of George’s, but in the abstract. He would fire broke out in my neighbour’s house, Commons. But nonetheless I think one never have made his audience feel the and I had a garden hose, what would I does regret the almost complete decline menace of the great weight of earth do? I would lend it to him. I wouldn’t in politics, in the last twenty-five years above then, and the testing almost to sell it to him, I wouldn’t tell him to go or so, I think, of the sustained arguing of destruction of the pit props. And and buy a hose of his own, I would lend a case, with the careful use of language though of course Churchill, when his it to him. And he would say, what and phraseology which helps to ad- time came – that was after his Liberal should I do afterwards, well, give it me vance it. But there we are. time, I am afraid – was the greatest and back when the fire’s put out.’ That’s my review of Liberal oratory most important orator in the history of Not much chance, actually, of over the last  years. And it gives me the twentieth century, on the whole, it getting the lend-lease supplies back, or confidence in the future of Liberal is remarkable the amount of time much use they would have been oratory. One never knows, there may which he devoted, during the war afterwards, but it was a brilliant homely be a great outbreak of Conservative years, under tremendous pressure, to metaphor, and I was struck by Church- oratory under Mr Iain Duncan Smith, speech preparation. ill, having apparently half learned from who may be an underestimated figure, He was never, unlike Lloyd George, FDR, half trying to learn, when he though I doubt it. I have more faith in a spontaneous orator. He always came back from the first Quebec the ability of Charles Kennedy. needed to have everything very conference – there were two, in  carefully prepared. There is evidence and  – on Sunday th September Paddy Ashdown wound up the meet- that in the summer of , at the . He went to the House of Com- ing by stressing his own belief in the worst and most pressured time, he mons on the Monday, and began by power of language. ‘I’ve always thought devoted ten hours to preparing one saying that when he’d arrived at that words are the battleground of House of Commons speech. He had Greenock from North America on the politics. If you can find the right words, the virtue of being an immensely Sunday morning, he’d immediately and you own them, you’ve owned the dedicated and fluent dictater, but it was read the Sunday newspapers, and they battle. And the one thing you can’t do ten hours of fluent dictation to get it were rather critical – interesting is let others borrow your words … right. On another occasion, in Wash- example of the enormous priority he However long you spend on that, in ington, when he was about to address always gave to newspaper reading. He the end it is worthwhile.’ Congress, his dictating secretary spoke was reminded, he said, of the tale about And, using an extract from a speech of the fourteen and half hours of the the sailor who jumped into a dock – at by Gladstone, itself included in Great dictation she had to take. Was this Plymouth, I think it was – to rescue a Liberal Speeches, quoted by Paddy in his misapplied time? I don’t really think so, small boy from drowning. About a last speech to the House of Commons, because those great speeches of the week later, the sailor was accosted by a and used once again by more than one summer of  marked out the woman, who asked: ‘are you the man speaker in the conference debate on history of that remarkable period like who pulled my son out of the dock the Afghanistan the day before (less than choruses in a Greek play. They did help other night? The sailor replied, mod- two weeks after September th), he to sustain the nation; in most other estly, ‘that is indeed true, ma’am’. ‘Ah’, showed how Gladstone’s words could circumstances they would have been said the woman, ‘you’re the man I was speak to the present: somewhat over the top, but not then – looking for. Where’s his cap?’ That Do not forget that the sanctity of life and also I think that the catharsis, the seems to me a very clear example of in the hill villages of Afghanistan, satisfaction which he got from deliver- Churchill trying to reduce his gran- amongst the winter snows, is no less ing these great orations, and the diloquence, and learn from Roosevelt, inviolate in the eye of Almighty God increase in his energy for the future with whom he’d just spent some time. than can be your own. Do not forget which came as a result of them more Oratory – I agree strongly with Max that he who made you brothers in than compensated for the time which Atkinson – is on the whole at a the same flesh and blood, bound you he had devoted to their preparation. discount; just as debating, as opposed to by the laws of universal love and that Broadly, as I say, he was an abstract, the quick exchange at Prime Minister’s love is not limited to the shores of powerful, sometimes over-the-top question time, is at a discount in the this island, but passes across the orator, but I came across one example House of Commons. One shouldn’t be whole surface of the earth, encom- I’d like to quote to you of his trying to too dismayed – though I am a bit passing the greatest along with the learn from Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a dismayed by that – because it’s an art meanest in its unmeasured scope. very interesting transitional orator – he with certain advantages, and although it was sort of half-way between the seems to be almost dieing before our As Paddy concluded, ‘Those are words grandiloquence of Gladstone and eyes, it is bound to change. No-one from the last century, but sentiments Churchill and the chatty manner of would expect a Gladstone speech of that are truly Liberal, and we heard Reagan and Clinton – but he always two and half hours, redolent with many them expressed yesterday. We are, in a liked homely metaphors. His most Latin quotations, to be persuasive at the real sense, the children of our history.’ famous homely metaphor was when he fifth time – Burke wouldn’t sound all

Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 37