Great oratory & orators (primarily British, but not only).

[paul789]

Recently, I’ve been really trying to get into the mind-set of the brexiteer. This has caused me to watch quite a few of Daniel Hannan’s speeches on youtube. It strikes me that his oratory skills are quite something. It got me thinking, who else is there in recent history who compares or betters him?

Christopher Hitchens spring to mind. Maybe it’s just an Oxford thing.

Zero points for replying with “lease a golf r”, “mx5”, “custard” or “frozen sausages”.

Half points for “mate, you need to get out more”, “seriously mate, have you really started a thread asking for oral?”.

Some impressive Hannan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uep7GA9hCKM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt0__X-Be8k

Hitchens? Way too much, you can probably find excellent examples yourself.

[paul789]

Rich_W said:

Tony or Hilary Benn.

And I have never voted Labour.

ETA

To the OP
As a Leave voter, THANK YOU for at least trying to see the other sides pov. I wish some of the more vocal Remainers would do the same. Surely you don't agree with everything the EU does. You must have issue with 1 thing. Much like I don't think everything the EU is evil.

Edited by Rich_W on Thursday 30th March 23:09

Oh there are many things I don't like about the EU. I completely get the essential democratic / sovereignty argument too. For me, I worry about the potential economic implications. I depend on the FS industry and I hope we manage to forge a deal which maintains its primacy. I also have severe doubts about the competence of the civil service and our political class to deliver something of this complexity. But, happy to be proved wrong.

I'm all in - not going anywhere, etc etc.....

[paul789]

irocfan said:

Hate to say it but our friend AH was quite nifty in the old speeches department - are you equating being able to whip-up a crowd into a frenzy with speaking well?

Ha ha! 0 - Goodwin's Law in under 1 page. Impressive! No, for me it's the quality of argument. If you follow Hitchens' work he's about as anti-facist and anti-totalitarian as you can get. I believe Hannan's father fought the Naxos so this is really not a brown shirt thing.

It's the depth of knowledge, the unflappable style, the ability to hold a crowd seemingly without notes. Hannan does ham it up a bit, but still impressive.

Edited by paul789 on Sunday 2nd April 14:50