Inspiring words

The party conference season is well under way, the Liberal Democrats having already held theirs and the Labour Party's being on its last knockings. Just the Conservatives to come. I didn't expect any great oratory from the party leaders, and so far I haven't been disappointed. Neither Nick Clegg of the Lib Dems nor Ed Milliband, the new leader of the Labour Party, produced anything other than strings of platitudes. But I suppose that is what is required at a political party conference.

But when, I wonder, was the last time we heard any truly inspiring words, any great rallying calls? President Obama's speeches may have sounded fine during the run up to the American presidential election, but has anything really stuck in the memory? We have to go back almost 40 years to John Kennedy's inauguration speech:

‘Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.'

Martin Luther King also hit the right note with:

‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.' And so on.

Who would not want to try to help bring that dream to life?

Before those two Americans, I think we have to go back about 70 years to the wartime speeches of Sir (as he was to become) Winston Churchill. The first speech he made to the House of Commons after he was made Prime Minister might, on the face of it, seem the very opposite of inspirational:

‘I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."'

But it worked.

Perhaps the most memorable of Churchill's speeches is his great rallying cry after the fall of France. The most often quoted part of that speech is, in fact, only part of two sentences:

‘we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender'

One might expect those last four words to have been thundered - and Churchill was more than capable of thundering - but he actually lowered his voice at that point and those words, ‘we shall never surrender', sounded almost like an afterthought.

Possibly this country's best-known rallying cry was not in a speech but consisted of a flag signal. More than 200 years ago, Nelson was a charismatic leader of men who wanted to inspire the crews of his ships before the battle of Trafalgar. He was proscribed in what he wanted to say by difficulties in using signalling flags, but there can be hardly any Englishmen who have not heard:

‘England expects that every man will do his duty'

It doesn't exactly look highly inspirational seeing it written there, but by all accounts it worked like a charm - and still does after 200 years. So that's it: 200 years, four men, four speeches, and one flag signal.