Coffee House Shots: Keir Starmer and the lost art of political oratory

<div>From Churchill to Thatcher to Blair to Farage, Parliament has seen some truly fantastic rhetoricians over the years. But last week came the news that – in a bid to improve his own oratorical skill – Keir Starmer employed a voice coach: former actress Leonie Mellinger. Mellinger has been at the centre of a fresh COVID-19 row, as the Prime Minister considered her to be so important that she qualified as a ‘key worker’ in 2020, visiting Labour headquarters in a mask on Christmas Eve 2020 to advise Starmer.<br><br>It is not an unusual practice to employ a voice coach to improve a politician’s public speaking, and on the podcast Michael Gove is joined by his own former coach  Graham Davies, to recover the lost art of political rhetoric. They discuss what makes a great political speech, share some of their favourite examples and ask: has Mellinger actually improved Starmer’s delivery?<br><br>Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Megan McElroy.</div> <hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>