Unlike 25 years ago, this was a day for soundbites

When Tony Blair concluded the deal ahead of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago, he famously declared: “A day like today is not a day for soundbites, we can leave those at home.”

But then he added, in one of the most famous and often ridiculed quotes of his premiership: “But I feel the hand of history upon our shoulder with respect to this, I really do.”

Throughout his 10 years as prime minister, Mr Blair was indeed the master of the soundbite, and his only rival back then for powerful and slick phrases was his friend and ally in the White House, Bill Clinton.

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President Clinton brought his glamour to UK audiences with speeches at the Labour conference twice – in 2002 in Blackpool and 2006 in Manchester – delighting his Blackpool audience with the words: “Conference, Bill Clinton, Arkansas South CLP.”

When he spoke in Manchester four years later, after a quadruple heart bypass in 2004, he was still big box office, but his energy and dynamism, not surprisingly, were visibly waning.

And more than two decades after his electrifying speech in the seaside town, at the end of the Agreement 25 Conference at Queen’s University, Belfast, his delivery was slow – at times ponderous – and it was clear that the old flair, charisma and panache is not what it was, sadly.

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But President Clinton – now 76, and slower in his speech and stiffer in his movement – is still big box office all these years later and he is still most definitely the master of the soundbite.

And in a line-up that included Rishi Sunak, Ireland’s Leo Varadkar and the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen, he was still the stand-out star.

His most memorable lines, in a direct appeal to the Democratic Unionist Party to return to government in Stormont, included, “the Windsor Agreement is the best deal you can get” and “some things are more important than the next election”.

But his overriding message to the stayaway DUP, delivered in a classic Clinton soundbite, was: “It’s time to get this show on the road.”

After the inevitable standing ovation for the former president, Mr Varadkar admitted he was a hard act to follow. But Mr Sunak will have been glad he was after the Taoiseach and not the charismatic Mr Clinton.

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In comparison, the UK PM’s speech was workmanlike, though to be fair, he had some good phrases – soundbites, even – of his own. The Good Friday Agreement was, he said, “a breakthrough moment”.

Praising all the architects of the agreement, Mr Sunak said the courage they showed was “more powerful than 1,000 bombs and bullets”, and there was “nothing glamorous about violence… nothing glorious about terror”.

Then, developing that theme, he continued: “Let us glorify moderation, romanticise respect and make heroes of those with the courage to reject absolutes.”

Had Boris Johnson and not Mr Sunak been making the PM’s speech marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the phrases and the rhetoric would have no doubt been more colourful and memorable.

But Mr Sunak not only had some good soundbites of his own, but struck exactly the right tone and was gracious in his tributes to the giants – including many political foes – who brought about the agreement a quarter of a century ago.

And while Mr Blair may have claimed 25 years ago – implausibly – that it was not a day for soundbites, the 25th anniversary at Queen’s University, Belfast, most certainly was.

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