An example of a persuasive speech - steal ideas

Political Rhetoric

 On a wave of popularity following the Falklands War of 1982, Margaret Thatcher, leader of the right-wing Conservative Party, was heading to victory in the UK General Election of 1983. The left-wing Labour Party, with an unpopular manifesto that has been described as 'the longest suicide note in history', was trying to avoid defeat.

An influential young MP, Neil Kinnock, made one of the most powerful political speeches of the period, arguing that a new Thatcher government would cut spending on health, education and pensions, and would increase unemployment, taxes and interest rates. The conclusion of the speech summed up these arguments ...

If Margaret Thatcher is elected as Prime Minister, I warn you, I warn you that you will have pain.

When healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance.

When talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right

I warn you that you will have poverty, when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a Government that won't pay in an economy that can't pay. I warn you that you will be cold.

When fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford.

I warn you that you must not expect work. When many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies.

I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in huge crowds

of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.

I warn you that you will have defence of a sort, with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding.

I warn you that you will be home-bound when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.

I warn you that you will borrow less, when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.

If Margaret Thatcher wins, she will be more a Leader than a Prime Minister. That

power produces arrogance and when it is toughened by Tebbitry and flattered and

fawned upon by spineless sycophants, the boot-licking tabloid Knights of Fleet Street

and placemen in the Quangos, arrogance corrupts absolutely.

If Margaret Teacher wins -

I warn you not to be ordinary .

I warn you not to be young.

I warn you not to fall ill.

I warn you not to get old. 

It didn't work: Margaret Thatcher won the General Election convincingly, and held power for 7 more years. Four months after making this speech, Neil Kinnock was elected leader of the Labour Party.

Rhetorical analysis

Scan through the text and identify examples of where the following rhetorical techniques are used 

• direct, personal address
• repetition
• list of threes
• alliteration
• metaphors
• reference to current names and terminology - facts and evidence