Late in the AV Referendum campaign, UK Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech at RUSI for No2AV. The national referendum, the first for decades, was Nick Clegg’s price for the Lib Dem/Conservative coalition government. It could be argued that DC was keener on the long term success and survival of the coalition government than No winning the AV referendum, but things had come to a head and he was to give a speech for No. It was a big moment, and the press were out in force.
Nominally Communications Director of NO2AV, my real brief was to get the Labour Party to join the Conservative Party on the No side. This had been far more successful than predicted or expected. Instead of the “normal suspects” joining up, me and my colleagues in the Labour Party had recruited five unignorable Labour Party ‘Big Beasts’: John Prescott, John Reid, Margaret Beckett, David Blunkett and Charlie Falconer. Getting these (in some cases very tribal) former Cabinet Ministers on the same side as William Hague and the Conservatives was huge. No was now in the game.
So there I was - in the “Green Room” with the UK Prime Minister. The speechwriting was done. His speech was going to add to the momentum and settle any doubts about the position of the Conservative Party. It had that strange green room quiet. Calm but with a constant underlying electricity.
But first, before delivering the speech, he needed to film a “quickie” vox pop that could be released to the media.
The wonderful and talented Nicky was ready to go. I made up the triangle and stood between them like a referee with two contestants at the start of a boxing match. She focused the camera and DC adopted his famous David Cameron Giving-a-Speech stance - leaned forward precariously, balanced on the soles of his shoes at an apparently unsustainable angle. He looked liked he was about to fall forward on his face!
Nicky nodded. He delivered the lines. Great delivery ... but ... in the wrong sequence, one emphasis was upside down, and he’d missed something out. He turned his head to me without moving his feet. I shook my head, briefly listed the changes I wanted and then delivered the complete lines back to him as they should be - in the right order and with the correct emphasis.
Then it happened. The magic. He didn’t blink; he didn’t question me. He didn’t grimace or frown. He didn’t repeat it back to check he’d “got it”.
He turned to the camera and just launched - and this time, he delivered it perfectly. The right words - all of them. In the correct sequence. With the proper emphasis - in all the right places. Wow.
He turned to me again with a questioning eyebrow. “Perfect!” I said. He grinned, nodded and smiled to Nicky, shook my hand and thanked me, then turned and went back to his team.
It was probably less than four minutes in total. But it worked because I knew what I wanted, and he was in the zone - and it showed. Nicky wasn’t fazed - she was used to it.
Speaker Coaching for Prime Ministers
I later spoke with friends who worked in Downing Street, and they said that David Cameron was like that. Quick to “get it”, great short term memory, instant delivery, then onto the next task.
It’s not every day a Speaker Coach works with a performer as good as that Prime Minister. But it was an impressive example of working with someone who listens to feedback and then instantly applies it.
Watching that clip on TV that night was delicious and surreal. I had coached and worked intensively with a Prime Minister before - speechwriting, speech-sleekening and speaker coaching the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for his famous address to the United Nations - but this was my Prime Minister in my home country.
Of course, winning 69% of the votes in the referendum against the initial odds and then celebrating with Labour and Conservative colleagues late into the night was even better!
Image credits, ConservativeHome + United Kingdom Home Office / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)