Gordon Brown's American Helpers

Wednesday, 4th November 2009

This is ridiculous. Apparently Gordon Brown has been paying a DC firm of speechwriters for help "tailoring" his speeches to an American audience. West Wing Writers have been paid more than $40,000 by Downing Street. This included $7,000 for "tweaking" Brown's dull, blindingly-obvious and banal speech to Congress earlier this year.

According to the Guardian:

The documents do not reveal which sections the writers tweaked, but in several instances the remarks betray subtle sensitivity to United States political sentiment.

For instance, they include references both to presidents John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and to "the bravery and valour of the Americans who gave that last full measure of devotion" – to many Americans an instantly recognisable reference to Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address.

Blimey! $7,000 for a reference to the most famous presidential speech in history! Now that's an impressive trick. Fairness demands that one note that the speech also contained references to such wildly unfamiliar concepts as the "Shining city on the hill", the "New Frontier", "all we have to fear is fear itself" and the notion of America as the "indispensable" nation. Wow!

It's kind of embarrassing that no-one in Downing Street could figure this stuff out for themselves. Kind of embarrassing? Make that hideously embarrassing.

It's also, as Charles Crawford points out, a waste of public money - albeit a trivial, if also telling, waste. There are, literally, thousands of professional hacks who could do this stuff at better rates.

Filed under: Americana (232 more articles) , Brown (134 more articles) , Speeches (13 more articles)

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seb

November 4th, 2009 5:14pm Report this comment

Okay. I'll at least try to be the first to comment here. Are these hired speechwriters in the States responsible for Brown's references to a New World Order? The NWO appears to refer to a situation in which, with the world having gone completely global and interdependent, it needs a self-effacing, modest bloke of towering intellectual ability, preferably a Scot, to oversee the implementation of policies leading to universal fairness, peace and prosperity, as enjoyed by citizens of the UK. As this is Brown's only message with any relevance to the international community, it surely cannot resonate with patriotic American listeners unless, of course, none of them understands a single word of it.

Brian Jenner

November 4th, 2009 5:45pm Report this comment

Top people should be using experts to help them with this work, Gordon hasn't got the time to be crafting beautiful prose.

The speech may have been boring because Gordon wanted it like that. It's not necessarily the fault of the speechwriter.

Professional hacks in Britain tend to develop a contempt for politicians because they never want to pay for services. They rely on their own people for free.

If Obama called me up, I think I'd want to charge top whack, so it's no fault of the West Wing Writers.

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