Barack Obama’s Westminister speech

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:

  1. Obama is the third American president to talk in parliament, who were the others?
  2. Find a suitable title and comment on your choice

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  1. 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”.
  2. 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”.
  3. 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”.
  4. In the Independent’s words, “He Came, He Spoke, He Conquered Westminster”.

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