Why the ‘voice’ of Muscat’s speeches jars with Muscat himself
Leslie Skipper writes the prime minister’s speeches – which explains the dissonance of having the voice of a gay Englishman carried in a thick Maltese accent by somebody who can’t relate to that voice at all
When the prime minister gave a speech at a business breakfast organised by The Malta Business Weekly a few weeks ago, and used the word “astonishingly”, I wrote that he needs better advice because the only men who say that something is “astonishingly whatever” tend to be English and gay.
I didn’t write that because there is anything wrong with gay Englishmen, but because the voice, vocabulary and verbal choices of gay Englishmen sit awkwardly with a man raised in Burmarrad, who has a really thick Maltese accent, and who claims to be straight, whether he triggers our gaydar or not. Gay Maltese men, with a couple of Anglophile exceptions, do not say ‘astonishingly’ either.
After I uploaded that post, I received an email from a member of my international worldwide network of spies, telling me that a certain Leslie Skipper wrote that speech, and that he is both English and gay (he lives with his partner in Malta).
I knew already that Skipper has been contracted by the Office of the Prime Minister for ‘communications services’ – which is how it was described to us when news broke of the contract – and of course, I knew that he is English.
But I hadn’t known when I wrote that post about the PM’s jarring use of the word ‘astonishingly’ that ‘communications services’ means Skipper is writing the prime minister’s speeches, or that he wrote that particular speech and that he is gay.
I must have sounded, to those who knew all these things, as though I was taking a jibe at Skipper because I knew what they knew.
So you see, the devil really is in the detail and you can work out quite a bit from a forensic or even just a cursory examination of language and how it is used – even if what you work out feels intuitive at first.
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Brava, Daphne! What will we do without you? We find out so many things from you that to us are hidden.
Please be careful as you must be really hated.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140302/local/payment.508956
http://www.templars.co.uk/team_member/leslie-skipper-media-trainer/
I would have been very pissed off if I was in a British college, paying £10K a year or more for my tuition and I get a bozo like him to give a public lecture. On the other hand, such presentations help students understand the disparities between European countries and how flimsy democracy still is ‘further south’.
A perfect case study for “The foundations and implications of corruption within amoral governance.”
Muscat must have cribbed that “it must be my British humour” off Skipper too.
The reason Skipper’s words don’t work in Muscat’s mouth is because Maltese speakers don’t do irony and self-deprecation – particularly not someone like Muscat with an ego the size of a house and a brain the size of his arsehole.
Have you seen his arsehole? So don’t judge, because you never know.
Jason Micallef has pictures of that in a brown envelope I heard. What happens in Brussels stays in Brussels. Or so Muscat thought.
It’s not nice to refer to Kurt Farrugia as the prime minister’s arsehole. You should have a little more Christian charity.
Have you seen the pictures? Do tell.
Jason is not a problem, as long as Cyrus does not get his hands on those pictures.
Have you never heard the expression “to speak from your a**e”?
It seems that Joseph Muscat uses that outlet for speaking more than his mouth. Most of what he says stinks of lies, corruption, deceit and insolence.
This might explain why everything he does or plans to do is shrouded in secrecy.
‘Leslie comes to Templars after 30 years in broadcast media, editing news bulletins at the BBC and ITN. He has written for leading public figures and has conducted media training in several European countries.’
Only to come to Malta, write the PM’s speeches and screw it all up at the end of such an ‘astonishingly brilliant’ carrier.
https://mobile.twitter.com/LeslieSkipper
If you haven’t had the right breeding or exposure as a child to a particular culture or language it is very had to grasp all the nuances in adulthood and you risk sounding phony.
[Daphne – Not really. If Chinese immigrants to the United States can do it and write prize-winning novels in English, then a Maltese person is even better placed. It’s arrogance, that’s all. They think they know enough to get by and that’s all that is required.]
This time I must congratulate you for the super detective work.
Incredible, well done.
[Daphne – It wasn’t detective work, Mr Loporto. It’s just an intuitive ear for language and the way people use words.]
How astonishing!!! Or as Effie would say: ‘How embarrassment!’ He has a thick Maltese accent? Well, he is bloody Maltese!!!! You are hilarious….
[Daphne – I am “bloody Maltese” too and I do not have a thick Maltese accent, and never did. He has no excuse. It’s not as though he had an under-privileged upbringing and went to a state school. Muscat is exposed for the inadequate he is when taken out of his Maltese switcher-stomping ground.]
What an asinine comment Mr. Chetcuti. Being Maltese does not necessarily mean one has to have a ‘thick Maltese accent,’ one that can be picked up immediately in a crowd. No doubt there could be shades of accents in someone who may not be speaking his native tongue – but it needn’t be “thick and nasty.”
To think that Labour hounded Charles Crowford (sic – Glen Bedingfield) for trying to teach civil servants how to write properly.
Well done Daphne. You sure are a pain in their butt.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-07-23/news/delimara-lng-project-could-be-delayed-by-six-to-12-months-5939298307/
The World Cup comment and its placement early in the “speech” sets the tone to the remainder to Muscat’s presentation.
Let me describe the speech in no uncertain terms: it is offensive, pedantic, derogatory, devoid of logic, and stupid.
The speech demonstrates that Muscat does not have the dedicated rigorous and systematic thinking that years of doctoral training provide. It exemplifies Muscat as lacking in respect to one of the foremost Universities in the world. It should not be simply about delivering a lecture at LSE but providing content that respects your audience.
Some of the members of that audience are probably Commonwealth experts who have lived, breathed, and forged the study of the Commonwealth. These experts were looking for a contribution to knowledge granted by the first hand experiences of a Prime Minister of a Commonwealth country.
Instead they got a country bumpkin out to impress and an hour long diatribe that lacks any real substance.
Even if the speech were ghost written as is usually the case, Muscat had final say and should have chucked it out of the window.
“Dr” Muscat may impress the illiterate portion of Maltese society; he may have fooled the uneducated and unthinking section of the Maltese electorate but he hasn’t fooled everyone and he surely hasn’t impressed those attending the LSE lecture.
Muscat holds a PhD. That doesn’t mean he earned it.
Incidentally, the chairman at that public lecture (not a keynote he speech, as Maltastar reports) is a pro-director of the LSE and a professor with a research interest in risk and trust.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140723/local/former-labour-journalist-in-pms-delegation-visiting-uk.528918
Coordinating the coordinators.
And here we go, pontificating to squalor like some bespectacled Ruskin. Again.
And are we in for a sad spectacle, Martin astride his steed, taking on the lobbies he voted into power, espousing the legitimacy of the democratic perversion he so laments.
You voted those miserable schemers Scicluna, MEPA dissolved as promised, the rule of law a subject best left to the OPM. Perhaps it suits you to have plebs in power, that you advise.
Aesthetics in the capable hands of the bus rider, ever seen his work?
Of course not, none of that, court cases to prove beauty beyond any reasonable doubt next.
You see Martin, these people cannot stand comparison to its splendour much as you can’t Mosley’s legacy.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140723/opinion/Quality-versus-squalor.528885
And how condescending of The Times to backlight the picture of Spinola bay. Makes it the ultimate backdated postcard, what’s that then 60’s Malta?
I was going to say, you’re brilliant or you’re perfect, but on second thoughts…what English adjective exactly describes your intelligence not only of the vocabulary, but mostly the reasoning and the philosophy behind every word you write.
Daphne, would I be correct in saying that Dr. Gonzi used to write all his own speeches when he was prime minister?
[Daphne – I wouldn’t know, but I doubt it. Prime ministers almost never write their own speeches. They don’t have the time. And it’s a specialist job anyway.]
Good one, but regarding the accents, San Alwigi was never good for English accents especially if the boy came from a Maltese-speaking family. Take Eddie and Gonzi.
Imbaghad jigi Varist jitkaza li ma nilhqux il-grad mixtieq fl-edukazzjoni. Jitkaza li hafna zghazagh jitilqu l-iskola qabel iz-zmien. Bi Prim Ministru li jimla l-aqwa jobs b` tal-familja, il qraba u l-hbieb, li jimpjega lill-barranin u jincenshom, x`toqghod tistudja taghmel meta jekk tmur tirregistra tiehu paga li mbaghad jiqalek gimgha li fiha taqla milli jaqla Prim Ministru?
Wasal iz-zmien li Varist idur lejn shabu u jghallimhom il-lezzjonijiet li tant u tant ghandu ghal qalbu, il-lezzjonijiet tal-kultura tar-rizenji. Ghamel 25 sena jippriedka li wasal iz-zmien ghal dawn il-klassijiet. Issa li d-dekasteru qieghed f`idejh jibza jibda l-lezzjonijiet specjlament fis-sajf ghax jaf li hemm tendenza li jfalli bhal ma fallietlu Skolasajf. Ukoll jekk ma hemmx post ghal kulhadd ghax full-up kif qalu lil bosta genituri ghal uliedhom.