Speechifying

I loathe public speaking and rarely practice it, I much prefer to hide behind pen and paper, so perhaps I’m not qualified to pass judgement on others. However, there is many a person doing a job that they aren’t qualified for…

I find it irksome that in Legco, Councillors regularly get up and simply ramble during their adjournment speeches. It’s perhaps insulting to the privileged position that they are in to clearly not prepare for an important moment of their work. If Councillors “just cuff it” in their Legco speeches then how can we expect others in the Islands, in particular the civil service, to take their jobs seriously? I think there is something to the saying that “behaviour breeds behaviour”.

If leading by example isn’t a motivation then perhaps self interest is; Janet Robertson cuffed her way into saying that drugs should only ever be used on an experimental basis by students going overseas and look what happened to her when the electorate got the opportunity to pass judgement.

It is perhaps something deeply tribal but I like a good rousing speech which leaves one motivated, inspired and ready to punch the first person that isn’t “of our tribe”. I therefore listened with hope to the first Legco of the new Council and lamented at the largely uninspiring little talks - they weren’t speeches. With the exception of one, there are clearly no natural speakers among the first timers and if they feel the need to practice in front of the bathroom mirror then I urge them to follow that feeling – better to be laughed at by your next of kin than be vilified by the whole community. Unfortunately nothing much can be said either of those who have been Councillors before. Of particular disappointment was old Bill from the West – in the past I seem to remember he was quite a passionate and motivational speaker. Perhaps invariably it was ripping into someone but for satisfying the tribal need, it did the trick.

The one exception was Dick Sawle who clearly has a lot to live up to and in his first Legco speech, for me, he didn’t disappoint. It was clearly a well prepared speech which is the first fundamental and it was delivered with a certain amount of passion and conviction which is the second fundamental. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the table in front of him was flecked with a little bit of spittle by the time he had finished. I recall little of what he actually said but I do remember getting a bit of the inspirational feeling which I expect from Councillors’ speeches. I wasn’t quite ready to assault the Casa Rosada single handed but I might perhaps have given Aarron Richardson a firm glare if I had seen him in the street.

Unfortunately the flames were then snuffed out by Shorty who finished his little talk by making observations about an ash tray on the table in front of him, for crying out loud. But lest he start penning his resignation letter, I would say not all is lost because he did make an attempt at humour and that can be an alternative to tribalism, but it too needs a lot of skill in preparation and delivery; it’s not an easy cuff.

Having set forth on simply making a few observations about Councillors speeches, I’ve arrived at making a hypothesis about what the real purpose of Councillors is. The usual line to trot out is that they are there to lead the country by making good decisions for the interests of the Islands etc etc.; a sort of boring bureaucratic answer that a career civil servant would give. Whilst it might be correct in a technical sense, it overlooks what I suggest is a more fundamental role: Councillors are really there to motivate and inspire us, for in that state we’ll achieve far more as a nation than if we simply rely on making good administrative decisions. In short they are there to feed our need for tribalism for without that we’ll weaken and fall – as individuals and as a nation. If this is branded as “manipulation” by the lefty pinkos then so be it, if my pre-historic need is satisfied then what do I care? If in my manipulated state I’m driven to achieve something then so be it.

Councillors might take this on board and then the adjournment speeches might actually serve a purpose rather than being a procedural irrelevancy. Imagine how much interesting Legco would become if a Councillor actually dared to walk around the chamber during his turn to speak. Granted a few of the stuffy old aristocracy would probably pass away in horror but everything has a cost. If Shorty actually picked up that ash tray and smashed it onto the table to lend gravitas to a point, that would be new. If Bill rediscovered his passion and slumped into his chair in a state of exhaustion with froth at the corners of his mouth after giving it his all in trying to pass a motion then we wouldn’t mind. If Jan tugged on a pair of jack boots, strode down the chamber table and kicked the Chief Executive unconscious, would we not, with our tribalism nourished, rise to greater things?