(no subject)

[gothwalk]

An interesting interview between Jeremy Paxman and Tony Blair. No idea who Paxman is, but he asks some good questions, as do members of the audience.

Another thing that just occurred to me... I watched a recording of Colin Powell's statement to the UN Security Council last Wednesday, and saw Jack Straw speaking just after him. I've seen people saying - seen peripherally, that is - that Powell's speech was "powerful" and "moving". Um, folks. The man read it from a sheet of paper in front of him, pausing every three words and looking up. It was like a poor performance in a small debating society. Jack Straw didn't say anything substantially different (in fact, it reminded me of the puppet scene from Chicago, but never mind that), but he said it a lot better.

Do people anywhere really think Powell's a good speaker?

Comments

[loupblanc.livejournal.com]

I saw part of this show on thursday and it was quite amusing to see Tony Blair trying to put arguments forward, half stuttering as if wondering "b-b-but why don't they understand?" Sometimes I wonder what Churchill would have done. Blair has no charisma at all...

[dryad-wombat.livejournal.com]

Churchill would have certainly delivered far more stirring oratory, but I very much doubt he'd have been any more tender and pacifist-inclined. The more I read of Churchill's letters and biographies, the more I really understand why so many members of the British govt - before 1939 - regarded him as dangerously enthusiastic about war.

(Trivial tangent: Churchill was even brutal towards the goldfish in his ornamental pond! he would only feed them so much and the quick goldfish got all the food, the rest didn't get any -- when an interviewer was aghast by his goldfish treatment, Churchill cheerfully replied it was all about survival of the fittest.)

I can't imagine Churchill would have been toting "No to War" placards next Saturday.

[loupblanc.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying Churchill would have been anti-war, au contraire. What I'm saying is that he probably would have been a lot more convincing to the population as per why we should go to war (not that I agree mind you)

[dryad-wombat.livejournal.com]

Ah, I agree. He was a master of the declamatory martial bit. It would be intriguing to read a Churchill_esque defense of the idea of war with Iraq.

Come to think of it, after September 11th, one of the Churchill web sites tried to get Churchill to speak FOR America -- they reclaimed his speeches for the War on Terrorism . They edited the specifics of date and place, and posted it on their page as a manifesto for what America would do in response to the Towers tragedy.
:/