Thursday, November 02, 2006
Ed Balls: Government Minister and Waiter
Last night I went to the first in the Fabian Society's lecture series "Britain's Next Decade" which was given by Ed Balls the deputy chancellor / Gordon Brown's presence on earth.
The Wednesday before Ed had been to a Dinner in the City. It was a black tie affair. he had obviously been a bit short changed at Moss Bross or where ever he got his penguin suit as he got one with an up turned collar.
But when he got there he noticed that all the men there had turned down collars. So during the dinner he asked the host whether it was ok to wear an up turned collar with his bow tie and of course the host reassured him that it was, it was just that the City tended to be a bit conservative in these things.
So between the dinner and the speech he was giving he decided to take advantage of the comfort break and on the way back some city gent grabbed him by the arm and said "You will thank Frank McCavity for me wont you" This left Ed a bit nonplussed. Who on earth was Frank McCavity? But being a politician and supposed to remember names he said he would and went off to the top table to make his speech. This of course stunned the guy who had grabbed Ed as Frank McCavity was the chef and he had thought that the Economic Secretary at the Treasury was one of his waiters
You can tell that he had been a political advisor before he became a MP as his speaking skills are those of a graduate student doing a presentation ie a bit crap for someone we expect to be sit around the cabinet table shortly. It works a bit like this. He will go off on one idea. Stop. The pause will last for what seems like an eternity and then he will take up a different but vaguely related idea and carry one with that. He was a bit like that when he came to Manchester and did a dinner for the City party. The thing that he can do well is answer questions which to me seemed a whole lot more fluent. So sort it out Ed get yourself along to a speech trainer.
I would write about the speech itself but I can do better than that as the full text is here
If this is not enough for you there is more! The lecture series continues with Charles Clarke, David Miliband, Ruth Kelly, Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper Ed’s better half. ¶ 11:26 am
The Wednesday before Ed had been to a Dinner in the City. It was a black tie affair. he had obviously been a bit short changed at Moss Bross or where ever he got his penguin suit as he got one with an up turned collar.
But when he got there he noticed that all the men there had turned down collars. So during the dinner he asked the host whether it was ok to wear an up turned collar with his bow tie and of course the host reassured him that it was, it was just that the City tended to be a bit conservative in these things.
So between the dinner and the speech he was giving he decided to take advantage of the comfort break and on the way back some city gent grabbed him by the arm and said "You will thank Frank McCavity for me wont you" This left Ed a bit nonplussed. Who on earth was Frank McCavity? But being a politician and supposed to remember names he said he would and went off to the top table to make his speech. This of course stunned the guy who had grabbed Ed as Frank McCavity was the chef and he had thought that the Economic Secretary at the Treasury was one of his waiters
You can tell that he had been a political advisor before he became a MP as his speaking skills are those of a graduate student doing a presentation ie a bit crap for someone we expect to be sit around the cabinet table shortly. It works a bit like this. He will go off on one idea. Stop. The pause will last for what seems like an eternity and then he will take up a different but vaguely related idea and carry one with that. He was a bit like that when he came to Manchester and did a dinner for the City party. The thing that he can do well is answer questions which to me seemed a whole lot more fluent. So sort it out Ed get yourself along to a speech trainer.
I would write about the speech itself but I can do better than that as the full text is here
If this is not enough for you there is more! The lecture series continues with Charles Clarke, David Miliband, Ruth Kelly, Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper Ed’s better half. ¶ 11:26 am
