In Democracy We Trust? A Keynote Speech by The Rt Hon Sir John Major

Watch Sir John Major here. And listen to Sir John Major’s very wise words. This is a truly excellent speech. This gentleman is a true Conservative. – Mark

Ex-Muslim Delivers the Greatest Speech I Have Ever Heard from an Arab Atheist

Theresa May Delivers Much-anticipated Brexit Speech - Live Footage

Theresa May's Guildhall Speech Pushing Globalisation | November 14, 2016

UN Summit: Barack Obama Calls for 'New Era of Engagement'
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama called for "a new era of engagement" with the world on Wednesday, pledging to work together with other countries while defending the interests of the United States, as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Obama calls for new era of engagement with the world
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Nile Gardiner: Barack at the UN: Was This Obama’s Most Naïve Speech Ever?
THE TELEGRAPH: It’s always a bad sign when a US president gets several rounds of heavy applause at the UN General Assembly, as Barack Obama did this morning in New York. Needless to say, the loudest cheers from the gathering of world leaders came when he condemned the actions of a close US ally, Israel, in continuing to build settlements in the West Bank. You can always rely on attacks on the Israelis to generate the biggest roars of approval at any meeting of the United Nations, and Obama dutifully obliged.

The Assembly also mightily cheered Obama’s boast that the United States no longer condones “torture” (as if it ever did), a blatantly political swipe at the interrogation techniques of the previous government, which most Americans happen to back. The president’s decision to rejoin the UN Human Rights Council, a basket case of an organization that includes some of the world’s worst tyrannies, was also greeted warmly.

Needless to say, when the president briefly brought up the need for greater international cooperation over Afghanistan, or spoke about the threat posed by al-Qaeda – or “violent extremists” as he calls them – there was stony silence.

Overall this was a staggeringly naïve speech by President Obama, with Woodstock-style utterances like “I will not waver in my pursuit of peace” or “the interests of peoples and nations are shared.” All that was missing was a conga of hippies dancing through the aisles with a rousing rendition of “Kumbaya”. >>> Nile Gardiner | Wednesday, September 23, 2009

WSJ: Obama’s full speech at the UN:
’New Era of Engagement’ >>> | Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Tea Party Express Hits the Road in Protest at Obama Healthcare Plans
TIMES ONLINE: On a warm, wet night in Michigan, Jan Crandall stands to attention while Taps is played on the sound system in honour of America’s war dead. Then she explains why she is carrying a placard bearing an astonishingly large number: $11,801,149,166,949.

It is the US national debt — and it is rising by $3.5 billion a day. “We came out tonight because of the excessive spending,” she said. “We don’t like the Government trying to take over everything. We are for healthcare reform, but they are not going about it the right way.” After a pause Mrs Crandall added: “Gee, are we going to talk about Barack Obama? We might get on his hit list.”

A powerful cocktail of hard-headed conservatism and wilful paranoia is driving a quixotic bus convoy from California to Washington, where Mr Obama will try tonight to rebut its claims and regain the initiative in the most important domestic policy speech of his presidency so far.

The Tea Party Express has no leader, no big donors and no formal goal except to “take back our country” from an Administration it believes has fundamentally misunderstood the role of America’s federal Government — and from Republicans who abandoned fiscal restraint to bail out the country’s banks last year.

The convoy consists of two 12-berth coaches built for rock band roadies and a permanent crew of two singers, two speakers and a supporting cast of mild-mannered political consultants from California. It would be no more than a fringe attraction had its members not already wrong-footed the White House in the health reform debate with talking points for hundreds of Republican town hall meetings over the summer. One of the brains behind the movement is Sal Russo, of Russo, Marsh and Associates, a Sacramento campaigning firm, formerly an adviser to Ronald Reagan and Rudy Giuliani.

The Tea Party people are now targeting congressional districts won last year by Democrats that they think can be won back in next year’s midterm elections. The coaches have stopped for four rallies in Michigan in the past two days, including one attended by Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — known to followers of John McCain’s presidential campaign as Joe the Plumber. Yesterday he railed against big government at a meeting in Brighton, and signed copies of his new book, Fighting for the American Dream.

Mr Obama’s version of that dream has always included universal healthcare. His speech tonight to both houses of Congress will be a “very forceful” argument for wholesale reform, aides said, and a reply to a misinformation campaign by opponents that has encouraged conspiracy theories about state-run “death panels” and “population control experiments”.

The President’s problem is that no US legislation this ambitious has ever been passed with a majority of Americans opposed to it. A Gallup poll yesterday showed that only 37 per cent of voters back the Bill now being worked on by the Senate Finance Committee.

Tonight’s speech will, therefore, stop short of demanding the public insurance plan — the “public option” — even though Mr Obama still supports the idea and even though it is considered non-negotiable by about 40 liberal Democrats in the House. >>> Giles Whittell in Jackson, Michigan | Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Barack Obama Tells Africa to Stop Blaming the West for Its Woes on Historic Ghana Visit
THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama has delivered the most challenging speech by a US leader in Africa for decades by castigating the continent's leadership for creating a culture of "brutality and bribery".

Adopting a tone his white predecessors never dared employ, the US President told Africa it could no longer blame the West for all its woes.

"Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner," he told the Ghanaian parliament. "But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants."

Seeking to jolt Africa's politicians out of a complacent belief that his shared ancestry with them would soften his rhetoric, Mr Obama spoke with withering directness.

Condemning tyrannical African leaders who "enrich themselves" amid the continent's chronic poverty, he promised fresh "partnerships" only with states that were well-governed.

For the kleptocrats and autocrats who still sprinkle the continent, he had a simple message: enough is enough.

"No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery," he said. "That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."

Traditional "strong man" rulers must give way to "strong institutions" if they are to benefit from future Western assistance, he said.

"We have a responsibility to support those who act responsibly and to isolate those who don't," he told the country's parliament from a podium draped in traditional yellow and green kente cloth.

"Development depends on good governance, and that is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many countries. That's the change which can unlock African potential, but that is a responsibility which must be met by Africans.

"Africa's future is up to Africans." >>> Mike Pflanz in Accra | Saturday, July 11, 2009

Barack Obama Tells Russia to Respect Borders

THE TELEGRAPH: Barack Obama tells Russia to respect borders of Georgia and Ukraine: US President Barack Obama has told Russia's leaders they must respect the sovereignty of their neighbours Georgia and Ukraine in a major speech in Moscow >>> | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff and Agencies | Tuesday, July 07, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: Obama to Russia: stop Iranian nuclear weapon and US will scrap missile defence >>> Tony Halpin in Moscow | Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Obama's Egypt Speech Must Challenge The Muslim World
HUMAN EVENTS: Several months ago, it was announced President Barack Obama, within the first 100 days of his term, would visit a Muslim country to deliver a major foreign policy speech breaking new ground in U.S. relations with the Muslim world. That schedule slipped a bit as it was just announced the speech will now be delivered next month in Egypt.

Whether such a bold move will set a course during his presidency for success or failure in dealing with the Muslim world turns on three factors: where the speech is given, to whom, and precisely what he says. While Obama controls the first and last factor, by deciding to deliver his speech in Egypt, he has already made a wrong decision concerning the first.

Let us consider the impact of all three factors. >>> By James Zumwalt | Thursday, May 14, 2009

Speech Lifts Obama But Stocks Fall Yet Again
TIMES ONLINE: The voters loved it. The pundits gushed. Even the pollsters were impressed.

But economic reality soon intruded to burst the bubble around Barack Obama's address to Congress last night in which he promised America that it would emerge "stronger than before" from the economic slump.

Wall Street stocks plunged again at the opening bell this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing almost 2 per cent in value as investors ignored Mr Obama's soaring rhetoric and lamented a lack of detail in his economic recover plans. Official data showing an unexpected drop in the number of home sales did nothing to reassure them. >>> Philippe Naughton, and Tim Reid in Washington | Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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Pope Benedict XVI Urges Global Unity on Crises
BBC: The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, has told the UN in New York that member states should solve the world's crises together.

In his speech on the final leg of his six-day US tour, he said the world was still subject to "the decisions of a few", without naming countries.

He urged states to protect their people from "grave and sustained" human rights abuses or face outside intervention.
Benedict XVI is the third pope to address the UN.

The Pope has now arrived at a synagogue in New York for a ground-breaking visit, the first to a Jewish place of worship in the US by a Pope, just hours before the start of the Jewish Passover.

His agenda in New York, his last stop before returning to Rome, also includes visiting Ground Zero and celebrating Mass at Yankee Stadium. Pope Urges Global Unity on Crises >>>

Watch BBC Video:
Pope Benedict XVI Speaking to the UN General Assembly >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Chinese Turn On “Gold Digger” Blair Over Mediocre Speech Costing £200,000 Plus
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair came under fire in the Chinese media yesterday for charging about £200,000 for a single speech - and not a good one at that.

The former prime minister spoke to businessmen and government officials in the industrial city of Dongguan, two hours north of Hong Kong, on Tuesday evening.

Although the real estate firm which hired him for a "VIP banquet" refused to confirm the sum, the local tax office said that he had paid just under £80,000 in income tax and £6,500 for a three per cent business tax, which would work out to a total fee of about £200,000. What made matters worse for newspaper commentators was that Mr Blair failed to say anything interesting. One said he had trotted out the same platitudes that could be heard from local officials. "Frankly, we are very familiar with all this - it's just like listening to any county or city official's reports," Deng Qingbo wrote in the China Youth Daily.

"If so, why pay such a high price to hear the same thing? Is it worth the money? Do these thoughts multiply in value because they come from the mouth of a retired prime minister?" Chinese turn on Tony Blair over speech (more) By Richard Spencer

TIMESONLINE:
£240,000 for Tony Blair’s not so great speech on greatness By Jane Macartney and Francis Elliot

Mark Alexander

Tony Blair “Lifts Hearts” in the Waldorf Astoria
“Analogies [of Islamic extremism] especially with the rise of fascism can be misleading but, in pure chronology, I sometimes wonder if we’re not in the 1920s, if not the 1930s, I fear.”

THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair compared radical Islam to Nazi Germany as he urged that the rest of the world should “not be forced into retreat”.

In his first major public speech since leaving office, Mr Blair told an audience at a prestigious charity dinner in New York that the war on extremism and terror was “far from over”, especially with regard to Iran.

Repeatedly driving home a sentiment that conflicted sharply with a Downing Street successor trying to pull British troops out of Iraq, Mr Blair insisted that it was no time to take a “half-hearted” approach to terrorism.

He said: "There is a tendency even now, even in some of our own circles, to believe that they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone.

"I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone.” Tony Blair 'lifts hearts' in New York speech (more) By Tom Leonard in New York

Mark Alexander