GARETH VAN ONSELEN: What happened to the art of speechmaking?

Our fractured politics suffers at least one common trait: the unmemorable speech.

It comes in various forms — the long drawn out list; the cliché-ridden call to arms; the staid critique; the wild, angry rant; the incomprehensible babble — but, whatever its shape or form, it tends to lack those things that set a great speech apart: originality, beautifully sustained prose and authority, and thus the ability to leave an indelible mark on the public mind...