It must be exhausting to be an SNP member. The party is continually rocked by events that undermine public confidence in it and in the Scottish Government. Scotland has witnessed a seemingly non-stop catalogue of woes. The resignation and subsequent arrest of Nicola Sturgeon knocked some of the stuffing out of the party. A fractious public battle to succeed her followed. Humza Yousaf’s short-lived tenure of Bute House ended with a whimper. Labour’s general election decimation of the SNP’s Westminster contingent kicked away much of the party’s claim to be the authentic voice of Scotland. Angus Robertson’s meeting with an Israeli diplomat may yet cripple John Swinney’s reputation for solid dependability. The country’s overwhelmingly unionist media must think every day is Christmas.
There is no miracle waiting in the wings to lift the SNP out of its depression. Miracles don’t happen in politics. The central question – indeed the only question the SNP’s leadership must answer when the party meets for its annual conference in Edinburgh at the end of August is, does it have the heart for the fight?
How do you demonstrate heart for the fight? Policy and strategy are certainly of the highest importance, but here is a party in serious need of an injection of heart. What is needed is a speech that moves the soul and is heard and resonates in every household across the land, and one that sees the world bend an ear to listen.
Creating, framing, writing and rehearsing such a tool will take a very great deal of hard work. Every word must be weighed and tested for accuracy, argument, force and impact. Sentences must be short, and the words written be words that anyone might use in day-to-day conversation. ‘Short words are best’ said Churchill, ‘and the old short words best of all.’
And short speeches are the best of all. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is arguably the most famous political speech ever. Delivered while the American Civil War was still in progress, the speech is just 271 words long. That’s around three to four minutes of speaking time.
It starts with the stirring phrase:
“ Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
It ends with words that have ever since given heart to liberal democrats worldwide.
‘“ …that this nation, Under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
I take no position here on American history, now or then, but as a piece of motivational rhetoric, as a statement of purpose and as an example of political leadership it is masterful. Its brevity makes it not only more powerful, but also memorable. It’s 161 years since the speech was first heard. It remains a potently fresh and germane piece of oratory, particularly as America struggles with what sort of country it wants to be.
Blood, toil, tears and sweat
Winston Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons on taking office on 13 May 1940 is remembered most for its devastating line that left no one in any doubt about the size of the challenge the UK faced;
‘“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
The entire speech was 730 words, so little more than five minutes.
Dr Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech was a call for a more equal America at a time when the black people of the USA were fighting centuries of oppression to win basic civil rights and share in ‘the American dream.’
At around 1,650 words, the speech was delivered in August 1963 to an audience of some 250,000 people, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. It took 16 minutes.
Let freedom ring
Dr King was the last person to speak that day. His speech as originally conceived was not hitting its mark with the crowd. At the urging of the singer Mahila Jackson, King dragged from his memory the core of a speech he had given many times before. He spoke of his dream for America. It electrified the crowd and rang out across the globe, energising civil rights movements worldwide and being a key force in seeing the US introduce laws that significantly improved the civil rights landscape for black Americans. It is worth reading some of the more memorable passages from the speech.
“ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.”
Surely even the hardest heart is moved by these magnificent words? The Rev Martin Luther King had a wonderful voice, homed in cadence and rhythm by years of preaching and speech-making. It was the speech Americans needed at the time America needed it.
Engrossing sentiments
I’m not for a moment proposing a speech of similar tenor for the SNP. What the SNP needs though is to energise its membership and send simple, credible, powerful messages to the people of Scotland. My preference would be for an entirely upbeat speech, containing neither grievance nor blame. To rise above the depressing pettiness and point scoring of the daily party-political grind. But not hyperbole. Not exaggeration. But substance. Real meat on the bone that gives people permission to believe.
Short, simple, crafted, honed, rehearsed, rehearsed and rehearsed, with rhythm, cadence and style to build pictures in the minds of listeners, to capture the imagination of millions, to make the world pay attention.
A final word; don’t do it by committee. Don’t destroy creativity. One writer and one politician working together. A third person is needed. An actor who knows all the skills of projection, tone and body language. Someone who can transmit those skills to the speaker. Skills that include drawing the audience closer to the podium – they are the vital fourth player in this performance – so they become as one with the speaker. The energy of speaker and audience in harmony can fill the room when the words are right, the delivery perfect and the sentiments engrossing.
All great speeches like those of Abraham Lincoln, the wartime Churchill and Martin Luther King have an essential ingredient. They are honest. Honest in purpose, intention, content and delivery. That’s why great speeches are remembered.
Carpe diem.
More in Holyrood.
