Lesson plan:
Watch this historic speech Obama held in Westminister and then read the newspapers comments listed below. Based on 1 or 2 articles write a summery of your own and post on your blog. Answer the questions:
- Obama is the third American president to talk in parliament, who were the others?
- Find a suitable title and comment on your choice
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- The Times opts to feature a large close-up of the US president on its front page, along with his autocueIts quotes a key passage from the speech in its headline: “Our action, our leadership, is essential to the cause of human dignity.”And the paper goes on to hail the message as one of “thanks, praise and extraordinary ambition”.
- But George Parker in the Financial Times says the address “failed to raise the roof” and reckons it was a “mild disappointment to the peers and MPs who arrived early to bag the best seats and surreptitious pictures with their mobile phones”.
- The Guardian devotes much of its front page to the speech but its picture shows Michelle Obama on a visit to Oxford University.The Guardian’s report says the president put America and Europe “unambiguously on the side of those fighting for freedom across the Middle East”.
- In the Independent’s words, “He Came, He Spoke, He Conquered Westminster”.