In 2005 his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, gave a startling speech in Cairo in which she said that having spent 60 years pursuing stability at the expense of democracy in the Middle East, and achieving neither, America was henceforth supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.
Nonetheless, the arrangement has been so indispensable to Labour, Britain's most indebted party, that no one dared change it until Mr Miliband, in a startling speech in July, vowed to abolish the system of affiliate memberships and thereby, he said, hasten "the death throes of the old politics".His motive was not purely idealistic.
T. S. Eliot, at his most provoking, suggested that Othello was doing something in this vein in his majestic final speech—"cheering himself up," in Eliot's startling words.
T. S. Eliot, at his most provoking, suggested that Othello was doing something in this vein in his majestic final speech — "cheering himself up," in Eliot's startling words.
Her habit of denial is broadcast in her startling first long speech: "I think not on my father," she says.
Some distilled principle of poetry seems to vibrate before us, as though a life of sensation had been boiled down to this startling, radically condensed speech.
Ko Heung-kil, a senior figure within the ruling Grand National Party, says the president should at the least have consulted his fellow leaders before making the startling Independence Day speech.Yet a separate, mundane, explanation exists for Mr Lee's suggested tax.
Vladimir V. Pozner, a veteran television host who was serving as the event's master of ceremonies, said the speech was startling precisely because Mr. Parfyonov is a cautious man who "has always been part of the corporate structure".
In some ways today's statement was a bit dull; most of the key points had been revealed in advance, and there were no startling surprises in the speech itself.
On September 24th Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, made a startling proposal in his speech at his party's annual conference: to freeze gas and electricity prices for 20 months after the next election, which is due to be held in May 2015.
In his talk at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, the similarities between Mr. Perry and Mr. Bush in mannerisms and speech were sometimes startling.
