Press Story: Analysis of the Last 25 Years of Conservative and Labour Political Speeches Reveals Their Most Used Word
Soft skills training provider MBM analysed the last 25 years of key political speeches by the Conservatives & Labour Leaders. The insight reveals that ‘Will’ is the most used word.
‘We will…,’ ‘The Conservatives will…,’ and ‘A Labour government will…’ are common sentences that have become easy for politicians to say. Promises with no repercussions.
Cambridge Dictionary Definition
The Cambridge dictionary gives the definition of ‘will’ as used to talk about what is going to happen in the future, especially things that you are certain about.
Additional Insights
- After the word ‘will’, the next most talked about word by both parties is ‘people.’
- ‘Britain’ is mentioned by both parties and is the third most mentioned word.
- Labours talk about themselves much more than the Conservatives do. This is particularly in the period from 2015 to 2021 when Jeremy Corby and Sir Kier Starmer were leaders.
- Plus, Labours mention the Conservatives 70% more than the Conservatives mention Labours.
- Every analysed speech can be found on Slideshare.
Power of Our Words
All words are not equal and as leaders, we need to be choosy about what words we use.’
I hope these insights are helpful to your audience. On behalf of Darren A. Smith, CEO of MBM.
For Readers of This Political Speeches Article Exclusively
The Slideshare link above shows 175 slides of word clouds, with each leadership speech of about 10,000 words converted into a word cloud. By viewing the slides you can see how speeches have changed over time for each party, and also how the different leaders emphasise different elements of politics.
We hope you take from this exercise that the words we use most are the ones that the audience can hear the most. Repetition can be an effective tool in communication.
