Although the art of rhetoric is central to the practice of politics it also plays an important role in civic and private life. Using Aristotelian notions of ethos, pathos and logos, this collection offers engaging discussions on everything from Prime Minister's Questions and Welsh devolution to political satire and the rhetoric of cultural racism.

With regard to the existing books on the market, there is currently no single text with which our edited collection would be in direct competition. This book is uniquely cross-disciplinary, but each chapter employs the Aristotelian framework of ethos, pathos and logos to illuminate aspects of British politics and society. This is the common thread that runs throughout the proposed volume. This book thus complements and extends existing research into the study of speech and rhetoric in Britain, as we demonstrate below.There are a number of texts on political speech in Britain. Among them are Norman Fairclough's book Language and Power (Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd, 1989 and 2001), which explores the connection between power and language through such case studies as the discourse of Thatcherism; Paul Chilton's Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice (Abingdon: Routledge, 2004), which draws on critical discourse analysis to explore political communication and representation through several case studies, including the Stephen Lawrence murder trial, political interviews, and parliamentary language; and Jonathan Charteris-Black's book Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005 and 2012), which examines how such leaders as Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair use metaphor and rhetoric to create an appearance of ethical integrity, communicate policies, stir the emotions of audiences, and activate political myths. While all three texts make an important contribution to the literature on British political speech, they tend to mobilise a single method or set of disciplinary techniques, with little attention to the diversity of rhetorical traditions and sites of communication. Our collection, by contrast, does not seek to exemplify one single approach and offers a sense of the plurality of forms of rhetoric in Britain.There are also texts that analyse the rhetorical strategies of political parties. They are: Norman Fairclough's book New Labour, New Language? (London: Routledge, 2000), which examines some aspects of Tony Blair's rhetorical style, the construction of the Third Way, and the ways in which language is utilised in the process of governing, and Judi Atkins's Justifying New Labour Policy (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), which explores New Labour's use of moral principles and arguments to win support for its policy programmes. While both of these texts focus on a single party, the proposed book will adopt a broader approach by considering not only the rhetoric of different parties, but of speakers who are outside the realm of British politics.A number of the contributors to the proposed collection have contracts for books about rhetoric in British politics. They are: Speaking of Politics: Development and Change in British Political Rhetoric (Finlayson and Atkins, under contract with OUP), Rhetoric and the British Coalition: The Ideas, Language and Policies of the Cameron-Clegg Government (Atkins, under contract with Palgrave Macmillan), and Labour Orators from Aneurin Bevan to Gordon Brown (edited by Crines and Hayton, under contract with MUP). James Martin is completing a book on Rhetoric and Politics for Routledge. Richard Toye is currently preparing an introduction to rhetoric for the Oxford University Press 'Very Short Introductions' series. While the proposed collection will have a broader focus than these texts, due to the inclusion of chapters on British society as well as politics, the proliferation of forthcoming books on speech and rhetoric in Britain is indicative of the good health of this emerging sub-field, to which our project will be a worthwhile addition.In sum, no examination has to date been undertaken of rhetoric in British politics and society. The proposed book is the first attempt to fill this gap, and we intend that it should provide a starting-point for future research in this area. As such, we believe it will be a foundational text for the study of rhetoric in British politics and society.

Introduction: Rhetoric and the British Way of Politics; Alan Finlayson and James Martin PART I - POLITICS AND LEADERSHIP 1. The Rhetoric of Rhetoric; Nicholas O'Shaughnessy 2. Rhetorical Technique - Aphorisms and Political Persuasion; Robin Burrow and Kevin Morrell 3. Rhetoric and Parliamentary Leadership - Prime Minister's Questions; Christopher Reid 4. Rhetoric and Political Intervention - Churchill's World War Two Speeches in Context; Richard Toye SECTION TWO - IDEOLOGY AND POLICY 5. Rhetoric and Party Politics - Looking Beyond the Leader; Katharine Dommett 6. Rhetoric and the Regions - Time and Space in Welsh Labour Rhetoric on Devolution; David S. Moon 7. Rhetoric and Morality - How the Coalition Justifies Welfare Policy; Richard Hayton and Libby McEnhill SECTION THREE - CULTURE AND SOCIETY 8. Rhetoric and Multiculturalism - David Cameron's 'King James' Speech and the Crisis of Multiculturalism; Bridget Byrne 9. Rhetoric and Race - David Starkey and the 2011 English Riots; Neil Foxlee 10. Rhetoric and Satire - Spitting Image and Political Comedy; Andrew S. Crines 11. Rhetoric and the Everyday - Fairness as Rhetorical Force and the Micro-Politics of Intentionality in a North Manchester Town; Katherine Smith Conclusion: Rhetoric, British Identity and Interdisciplinarity; Judi Atkins and Nick Turnbull