Richards How to Write a Parliamentary Speech

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-78590-936-8
Verlag: Biteback Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 304 Seiten

How to Write a Parliamentary Speech is a practical guide to effective speechwriting from one of the best in the business. In this fresh, funny, practical guidebook, Paul Richards deploys his thirty years' experience writing parliamentary speeches to offer tips, tricks and sage advice. From the maiden speech to the resignation farewell, via tributes, apologies, second readings, adjournments and all points in between, this book gives you the inside track on how it's done. How to Write a Parliamentary Speech will help politicians and their staff write and deliver better speeches. But, more than that, it provides anyone interested in politics with a behind-the-scenes view of how our politicians make their arguments, use (and misuse) language and, ultimately, make the laws of the land. David Cameron, Tony Benn, Margaret Thatcher, Barbara Castle, Charles Kennedy, Tony Blair, Liz Truss, Aneurin Bevan, George Galloway and Michael Gove all make an appearance as Paul Richards pulls apart their speeches and sees what we can all learn. There are one or two stinkers too - to see how not to do it. There are lots of books about speechwriting - but this is the first one in 800 years about how to write a parliamentary speech.

Paul Richards is a speechwriter, columnist and author. His books include How to Be a Spin Doctor, Labour's Revival, How to Win an Election and Tony Blair In His Own Words. He has been a parliamentary candidate, special adviser and chair of the Fabian Society. His first parliamentary job, in 1991, was adviser to a Labour shadow Cabinet minister, writing speeches. He has been writing parliamentary speeches ever since.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Richards, Paul

Leseproben

Chapter One

What are the rules and conventions?

Parliament, like any debating chamber, has its own rules and conventions, laid down in Erskine May. These have evolved over the many centuries that Parliament has sat.

For example, Erskine May covers relatively recent developments such as e-petitions, the election of select committee chairs and the idea of ‘backbench business’. It also covers ancient conventions of debate and procedure, or what Sir David Natzler, a former clerk of the House of Commons, calls ‘the wonderful world of parliamentary procedure at Westminster’.

Erskine May (1815–86) was an actual person who started out as a junior clerk in the House of Commons and published his Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament in 1844 when Tory Sir Robert Peel was Prime Minister and the Whigs’ John Russell was waiting in the wings.

Erskine May is one of those works, like Das Kapital or the Bible, from which people quote but few have read cover to cover. It’s vast. Sir David Natzler KCB wrote, ‘Thomas Erskine May’s original work of 1844 was unmistakeably a book, albeit one which would have challenged any reader to peruse from start to finish.’ If you’re really interested, they recently made Erskine May available online, all gazillion words of it.

STANDING ORDERS

Far more useful and manageable are the Standing Orders. Standing Orders are written rules covering the House of Commons and House of Lords. They cover, for example, how the business of the House is organised, how time is allocated in both Chambers and the rules relating to committees. The latest version was published in May 2024 in a handy A5-sized book and formed an invaluable guide to the legions of new MPs after the 4 July election.

As you might imagine, there are lots of Standing Orders, covering how and when to make speeches, how to behave and what happens if you don’t. There are now 163 House of Commons Standing Orders for ‘public business’ and around 250 for ‘private business’.

For example, here’s a newish Standing Order relating to proxy voting to give you a flavour:

39A. Voting by proxy. A member eligible … may arrange for their vote to be cast by one other member acting as a proxy (a proxy vote) under a scheme drawn up by the Speaker in accordance with this order and published by him. A member is eligible for a proxy vote by reason of – 1 (a) childbirth; (b) care of an infant or newly adopted child; (c) complications relating to childbirth, miscarriage or baby loss; and (d) serious long-term illness or injury subject to the conditions set out in the scheme published under paragraph 1 of this order.

Parliamentarians should know the Standing Orders, and the speechwriter should dip into the sections relating to the conduct of the debates before starting to write.

For example, SO47 covers the time limits on speeches in debates, whereby the Speaker may ‘announce that he intends to call members to speak in a debate, for no longer than any period he may specify, and he may at any time make subsequent announcements varying the terms of an announcement under this paragraph’. This means that a carefully time-scripted speech may become truncated with little notice, thus testing the member’s ability to think on their feet and self-edit as they speak.

Or SO42, which covers the conduct of a member who ‘persists in irrelevance, or tedious repetition, either of his own arguments or of the arguments used by other members in debate’. In such a case of a member droning on with the same points, the Speaker may ‘direct him to discontinue his speech’, which is a polite way to say the Speaker will tell you to shut up and sit down. This means that the speechwriter must come up with a logical, sequential flow of arguments in a speech, with as much fresh material as possible. This is where local examples from the constituency are most useful, rather than the generic points from the lobbyists’ handouts.

CUSTOM AND PRACTICE

A legendary and much-missed former general secretary of the Labour Party is reputed to have said ‘it is a rule, but it isn’t written down’. What was true of the Labour Party is also true of Parliament. Much of parliamentary procedure has evolved over centuries and is not codified anywhere in the 250 pages of Standing Orders.

This is known as ‘custom and practice’. The practice of bills being ‘read’ three times in both Houses is not in the Standing Orders, for example. Other procedures have developed through precedents such as rulings made by the Speaker and resolutions of the House. There’s a seating plan, for example, which is purely convention. Most Parliaments have named seats for members. Ours doesn’t even have enough seats for all the MPs. If all 650 turned up at once, some 200 would have to stand or sit on the floor. If an MP wanted to sit next to their friend in the opposition or take a breather on the front bench, even if they are a backbencher, there is no rule that says they cannot.

In June 2022, ahead of a Second Reading debate on levelling up, the Speaker of the House reminded MPs of some of the conventions which they should observe:

Before I call the minister to move the Second Reading, I wish to remind members of the House’s conventions. With a large number of members seeking to participate today, Members will recall that if they participate in the debate they should be present throughout the opening speeches and the wind-ups, be present for most of the debate, and, as a minimum, remain in the Chamber for at least two speeches after their own. Also, while we appreciate that interventions are an important part of our debates, if Members intervene repeatedly they are likely to find themselves being called later in the day than might have otherwise been the case. This is so that we all respect others and treat each other fairly and in the best possible way.

So in short, the Speaker is saying observe these guidelines, or your chances of getting called to speak are remote.

For our purposes, here are some of the main rules that you need to obey when speechwriting and speaking.

USING ELECTRONIC DEVICES

You may want to use a script for your speech, to ensure all the points are covered and all the facts are correct. However, the convention is that members cannot read their speeches. Once, if an MP was spotted reading from notes, other MPs would call ‘reading, reading’ at them to shame them. However, these days, the rule has become somewhat relaxed. Erskine May says:

In principle, a member is not permitted to read a speech, or a supplementary question, but may make reference to notes. Similarly, a member may read extracts from documents but such extracts and quotations should be reasonably short. The purpose of this rule is to maintain the cut and thrust of debate, which depends upon successive speakers meeting in their speeches to some extent the arguments of earlier speeches; debate is more than a series of set speeches prepared beforehand without reference to each other.

The new rules even allow for the discreet use of a ‘hand-held electronic device’ (a tablet or phone, rather than an electric toothbrush or drill, presumably) as an aide-memoire.

So, you might want to use bullet points or cue cards to structure your arguments and key points, but full scripts on A4 sheets of paper are discouraged.

PARLIAMENTARY LANGUAGE

There are various conventions on how to speak in Parliament. There’s a certain civil and courteous style that needs to be mastered and written into the drafts of speeches.

For example, the MP should say something complimentary about the previous speaker.

For example, here’s Sarah Sackman MP in the King’s Speech debate in July 2024: ‘Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. and learned Member for Fareham and Waterlooville [Suella Braverman].’

Next, the MP must address the Chair, not other Members of Parliament. The debates are conducted ‘through the chair’, not directly between members. That means that any reference to ‘you’ only means the person in the Chair – the Speaker or one of their deputies. Everyone else must be addressed in the third person and never, ever by their actual name.

The MP needs to know their constituency and other aspects of their status. The main ways to address a member are as follows:

• If an MP is not of your own party, you address them as the honourable Member for (name of the constituency) or the honourable member opposite
• If an MP is a member of your own party, you address them as my honourable friend
• If an MP is a member of...