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The Stuff of Nightmares

Let me cast your mind back to a rather dreary day in June 2016. Then PM, David Cameron, had had quite a night. It began, according to sources, with a confident late night Downing Street dinner and ended with a rather sorry breakfast, after which he tendered his resignation. Sources report that Mr Cameron had […]

One year on – still Trump first

In October of last year, I wrote a blog entitled ‘What can Donald Trump teach us about speechmaking?’ Clearly, very little. At the time, Trump was languishing in the polls and reeling (a bit) from the leak of the tapes we all unfortunately all had to hear and many didn’t expect him to win. It’s […]

How to Talk Yourself Down

President Obama did it quite effectively. President Reagan did it quite effectively. President Bush even did it quite effectively. President Trump doesn’t do it all. To the British it’s almost a national sport although Michael Gove should definitely give it a rest. What am I talking about? Self-deprecation – the act (and sometimes the art) […]

Taking the Anxiety out of Networking

Poor old Theresa May was at it again last week – snapped at the EU summit looking uncomfortable sandwiched between Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron covering their mouths to prevent journalists lip reading their conversation. Cue much internet hilarity at Mrs May’s expense. The scene reminded me of many I have seen before, a networking […]

How authentic are you?

“Would you buy a used car off this person?” That used to be a general rule of thumb when it came to the question of authenticity. It seems quite quaint now, a throwback to a more innocent time when greater stock went into reading a person’s face for signs of trustworthiness. Things are so much […]

A lesson in not over promising

Politicians beware. The media is always watching and once they sense a story they will run with it and not stop until we have all become bored. This may seem an obvious statement and yet the Catalan referendum coverage has once again showed us how exposed politicians are in the media glare. This time last […]

In defence of a Conference speaker

Far too much will be made of the Prime Minister’s delivery yesterday although, of course, by writing this I am adding to the noise rather than standing back much in the same way that the driver who complains about the traffic forgets they are part of the problem. Granted, the speech was billed as a […]

Finding your Natural Voice – New Workshop

We have just launched a highly engaging and genuinely unique workshop, Finding your Natural Voice, looking at how the voice works, the importance of relaxation, how to breathe efficiently, how to project with resonance and confidence and how to speak with clarity. We all have the capacity to speak so that others listen and this limited […]

The Corbyn Personality Cult

In Brighton this week, Jeremy Corbyn has had a twinkle in his eye and so well he might. A year ago he was the bête noir of not just the Tories but also large sections of his own party who saw his jump to the left as the death knell for the party. But oh […]

Whistle blows on Party Conference season

It’s that time of year when the leaves start to fall, the geese head south and political parties decamp to a conference centre near you for a few days of back slapping with the party faithful. Along the way, the big guns will roll out the ideological road maps, while the smaller guns will hope […]