Danny Finkelstein has got a great post over at Comment Central. It appears that the ever-so-authentic Mr Brown has had to borrow the speechwriting skills of Bob Shrum. Danny compares speeches by previous Shrum clients with Mr Brown's effort of Monday...
"Al Gore 2000 nomination acceptance speech: I know my own imperfections. I know that sometimes people say I'm too serious, that I talk too much substance and policy.
Gordon Brown: Sometimes people say I am too serious and I fight too hard and maybe that's true...
Al Gore 2000 nomination acceptance speech: I pledge to you tonight: I will work for you every day and I will never let you down."
Gordon Brown: This is my pledge to the British people: I will not let you down.
John Kerry 2004 nomination acceptance speech: And what can I say about Teresa? She has the strongest moral compass of anyone I know.
Gordon Brown: And this is my moral compass.
Bill Clinton's State of the Union 1995: As we move into this next century, everybody matters; we don't have a person to waste.
Gordon Brown: This is the century where our country cannot afford to waste the talents of anyone."
I hope Mr Brown will ask for a discount from Mr Shrum.
Going down with Gordon Brown
Smart work by Danny Finkelstein. So the man behind the ersatz-economy is a man who makes ersatz-speeches. This sort of copycat culture gives politics a bad name. Still, after seeing the way Brown stole Conservative proposals for a border police, nothing that 'Magpie Brown' does really surprises anymore.
Posted by: Tony Makara | September 26, 2007 at 05:56 PM
They are similar, but all comparisons are still firmly in the field of being totally coincidental - he has a Phd remember; and I really cant see a masterful political calculator plagiarising in his inaugural election broadcast....
Posted by: A person | September 26, 2007 at 09:53 PM
Oh come on, these phrases are hardly unique are they. I suspect most leading politicians use phrases pretty similar to those above including all the Tory leaders of the past 10 years.
There's only so many ways which you can say that you are moral, a leader, patriotic etc. so all phrases end up getting recycled. So what?
See this is what I mean by saying you're attacking Brown on the wrong things. If this is the best that we can muster - that he's a 'plagarist', 'communist', 'Thatcher-hater' blah blah...then it certainly doesn't bode well at all.
Posted by: Michael Davidson | September 26, 2007 at 10:03 PM
Michael Davidson, may be but there is a striking similarity in the language, and when you factor in that most of the policies he has announced are lifted straight from the Conservative 2005 manifesto, he isn't the conviction politician he claims, but a plagiarist.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_04_05_conservative_manifesto.pdf
Posted by: Iain | September 27, 2007 at 12:16 PM