Gordon Brown bid a farewell to the Labour Party with his Manchester conference speech. It was a brief conference speech in Manchester, not least because his speech was timed just before the announcement of Ed Miliband as his leadership successor.
He’s made a point of lying low for the last few months as the leadership contest ran on. A good move, really.
In his short speech today he was in ebullient form. He made a point of thanking those who had the position of leader before him…John Smith, Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair.
Manchester Conference Speech Brims With Humour
And it was mention of Tony Blair that prompted a rare show of humour from the MP for Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath. So, this was really quite shocking, rare material.
“Even though I’m a full time MP I got a letter from someone offering me a job and asked a reference. Tony said he was writing one, I just didn’t expect it to weigh in at 700 pages.”
There were other jokes from the former prime Minister. These included a thank you to the free press for its:
“Fair and balanced reporting. The Fife Free Press.”
This was more than tolerable Manchester conference speech material from a man not known for public displays of humour in his public speaking. So, farewell Gordon. Ever onward.
Why You Can Use Humour in Your Speech
Humour, particularly the self-deprecating type, works well in a speech. However, be wary of joke-telling.
- 1With some humour You appear more likeable and you don't take yourself too seriously.
- 2Humour helps you to get across a serious point with some humorous emphasis.
- 3Humour will help you cover serious material both quickly and easily.
- 4A funny anecdote makes your material more likely to be remembered, because it's memorable.
- 5Your humorous anecdote will keep your audience's interest and attention.
Why not discover more about humour in the conference speech? Or, you can always learn more about farewell speeches, at conference or otherwise, with a coaching session from Time to Market. Perhaps, you can opt for a coaching session at the Manchester training centre. Or you can choose one of more than 40 training centres in the UK, and build your public speaking skills. Then, watch how your confidence grows, in turn. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch when you are ready to find out more.
OUR CONTACT DETAILS
Phone Number
01344 859823
Email Address
training@timetomarket.co.uk
Training | Coaching | Online Courses | Seminars | Tips | Podcasts | Videos
Hi Simon,
This might be the case. The busy routines of government just didn’t add up to sound speech writing help for GB…it worked for Blair’s speeches and it still works for Obama. So I guess that GB wasn’t best served with a high calibre speech writer. We might need to wait for the next set of 700 page memoirs to find out more!
Peter
Isn’t it ironic that if he’d been able to do this kind of thing when it mattered, he would probably still be PM!?!? ;)
That said, I sense a slight change in content, not just style – presumably that’s because he has to write them himself these days. If that’s right, his old speech-writers should be shot, because they did him a disservice….
…. and yes, I know, I’m stretching it a bit! :)