"Who was the last politician you listened to for any length of time? Perhaps it was Andy Burnham or Zack Polanski. Or maybe it was Wes Streeting, Nigel Farage or Zarah Sultana. Perhaps your dark secret is that it was Donald Trump. One thing these politicians have in common is that they are all unusually good communicators. From Farage's drawling provocations to Polanski's pithy directness, Sultana's concentrated blasts of outrage to Trump's mesmerising ramblings, they compel you to listen."
"In some ways, the return of rhetoric as a hugely advantageous political skill feels like a liberation. Nowadays, it's true, this skill is often deployed in simpler, cruder ways than in the past: in quick, conversational interventions or digressive public statements and question-and-answer sessions, rather than expertly structured formal speeches. Even if Farage becomes the most iconoclastic prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, it is doubtful that his key utterances will be as anthologised and remembered as hers."
A new cohort of politicians attracts attention through compelling, often populist communication styles that prioritize emotional engagement and clarity over technocratic jargon. Their rhetoric ranges from drawling provocation and pithy directness to concentrated outrage and hypnotic improvisation, making listeners pay sustained attention. Political speech increasingly favors conversational interventions, digressive public statements, and question-and-answer exchanges rather than formal, tightly structured addresses. The shift replaces the inward-looking, jargon-heavy language of previous decades that suggested governance was a technical domain for insiders. The return of rhetoric functions as both a liberating populist force and a strategic skill that reshapes public persuasion and political competition.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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