How to Write a Parliamentary Speech

Book excerpt: 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.