Renewing Political Speech and Speech writing report launched at Parliament

Politicians need to get people to trust them more if they want their speeches to be heard says a new report launched by the University of Birmingham and the University of East Anglia. The research project " The Crisis of Rhetoric: Renewing Political Speech and Speechwriting " argues that public debate and the freedom to make arguments and counterarguments are essential for democracy. But debates need to be productive and arguments need to be good ones, while political discussion must be more than just sectarian assertions and insults traded like blows in a wrestling match. The findings show how a series of recommendations of political speech and speech writing, which concludes politicians and political activists, still must use the same appeals of political rhetoric, devices and strategies as their ancient counterparts in order to get their message across. The study which has been led by Dr Henriette van der Blom from the University of Birmingham and Professor Alan Finlayson from the University of East Anglia has concluded that good rhetoric gives audiences good reasons to trust or listen to a speaker. But when it comes to politicians' performance of this role, something is not working. A 2017 poll found that just 19% of us trust ministers to tell the truth.