This is the speech Theresa May gave at yesterday’s party conference. It’s fun to read, especially the beginning and the end, because it’s rhetorically excellent: a beautiful, personal story immediately draws you into the speech. This is how it gains attention. They are good pictures that she describes there with words.<\/p>\n
In the middle, I find it remarkable that she apologizes. On a very personal note, she apologizes to her party members for the poor election results.<\/p>\n
The end is programmatic. An optimistic outlook for the future. Dramaturgically designed so that the participants of the party conference could not wait to move their hands to applause.<\/p>\n
Here’s how it starts:<\/p>\n
A little over forty years ago in a small village in Oxfordshire, I signed up to be a member of the Conservative Party. <\/span>I did it because it was the party that had the ideas to build a better Britain. It understood the hard work and discipline necessary to see them through.<\/span><\/p>\n And it had at its heart a simple promise that spoke to me, my values and my aspirations: that each new generation in our country should be able to build a better future. That each generation should live the British Dream. <\/span>And that dream is what I believe in.<\/span><\/p>\n But what the General Election earlier this year showed is that, forty years later, for too many people in our country that dream feels distant, our party’s ability to deliver it is in question, and the British Dream that has inspired generations of Britons feels increasingly out of reach.<\/span><\/p>\n Now I called that election. And I know that all of you in this hall – your friends and your families – worked day and night to secure the right result. <\/span>Because of your hard work we got 2.3 million more votes and achieved our highest vote share in 34 years. That simply would not have been possible without the long days and late nights, the phone calls, the leaflet drops. The weekends and evenings spent knocking on doors. <\/span>So for everything that you do, let me say – thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n But we did not get the victory we wanted because our national campaign fell short. <\/span>It was too scripted. Too presidential. And it allowed the Labour Party to paint us as the voice of continuity, when the public wanted to hear a message of change. <\/span>I hold my hands up for that. I take responsibility. I led the campaign. <\/span>And I am sorry.<\/span><\/p>\n But the choice before us now is clear: <\/span>Do we give up, spend our time looking back? Or do we do our duty, look to the future and give the country the government it needs? <\/span>This country will judge us harshly if we get this decision wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n Because all that should ever drive us is the duty we have to Britain and the historic mission of this party – this Conservative Party – to renew the British Dream in each new generation. <\/span>That dream that says each generation should do better than the one before it. Each era should be better than the last. <\/span>The dream that, for decades, has inspired people from around the world to come to Britain. To make their home in Britain. To build their lives in Britain. <\/span>The dream that means the son of a bus driver from Pakistan serves in a Conservative Cabinet alongside the son of a single mother from a council estate in South-West London. <\/span>And in a way, that dream is my story too.<\/span><\/p>\n \/\/Here you can also view the entire speech:<\/p>\n