I Will Deliver
Britain's ruling party anoint its latest leader. By default now head of the UK government.
Liz Truss gave her acceptance speech in front of the adulating party faithful.
6 minutes. 318 words.
As the rolling news graphic above helpfully tots up, ten of which were 'deliver';
I intend to deliver
we need to show that we will deliver
I will deliver
I will deliver
I will deliver
we all will deliver
we will deliver, we will deliver, we will deliver and we... and we... and we will deliver
Whilst even commentators from her own side felt underwhelmed by her "awkward, stilted, hectoring & dull" speech, many at least thought it an antidote to the previous tenure de Boris.
(It does remind me a little uncomfortably with the way England choose its national men's team football coach. Whatever went before the pendulum must then swing to its polar opposite next time 'round.)
When coupled with the supposed astonishing 149 policy pledges made over her Summer's campaign trail, there's likely one thing the country can agree on. She's one hell of an in-tray.
Who'd be a 'president'?
An autocrat and despite embezzled bazillions you sleep with one eye open for fear of being knifed in the back. Literally too, hey, Vlad? Right, Xi?
A democrat and despite a free willed mandate of the people you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, wondering how to circle impossible squares of events mostly way beyond your control.
Britain's 56th Prime Minister here has a dizzying amount of issues with which to magically contend. So much so, observers suggest she faces the steepest of uphill starts of any incoming leader since Churchill. And boy did he have a few knotty ones back in May 1940.
So her first official remarks in her new capacity count.
Whether as headline or lede, her speechwriters will no doubt be grateful most serious reports prominently featured phrasing along these lines;
Liz Truss vows we will deliver in next prime minister's speech.
Back in my cubrep days, one presentation classroom steer of that age was that to make something sink in, you must repeat it throughout your presentation seven times.
Liz beat that.
And I suggest presentations a quarter-century back were on average longer than today.
Hers was interestingly pretty close to the 400-second format of Pecha Kucha.
This kind of set-piece is always deliberately shorn of policy detail.
Rather, it aims to set the tone.
Whichever side you're one, and whatever the odds on her achieving a never-before won fifth term for any party in the UK, most compatriots surely hope the next two years are not a bloody disaster.
At least her tone is focused on delivery.
What would your prospects say is yours?
footnote:
I couldn't help but spot the bespoke lectern used for this unveiling.
Must've cost a fair few quid.
I also gather that each PM has their own Downing Street podium, designed just for them. In vivid contrast to the 'robust' and 'corporate' looks of her recent predecessors. Although one heathen political hack dismissed the style as a 'modernist interpretation of a podium, deconstructed and twisted', why not personalise such? As she assumed power, Liz opted for this same design as below, in its varnished natural lumber form, shorn of colours.
Whatever your slant on the Union Jack, pretty impressive idea and excellent execution on stage.