Some commnetary from Samuel Brittan in the FT on Gordon’s desire to boost this tired Labour government’s rhetoric.
He cites Pericles funeral oration as an exception to the rule – speechmaking that does make a difference.

FT.com / Columnists / Samuel Brittan – Please spare us this ‘vision thing’

It is time to come back to the problems of Gordon Brown. He seems to me to have two overriding passions. One is an urge to better the condition of the poorest countries, whose inhabitants subsist on a couple of dollars a day and lack the elementary decencies of hygiene and elementary schooling. The other is to eliminate child poverty in the UK. Both these objectives are admirable, however much one may want to argue with him over the means. Beyond that he is a conventional politician trying to compromise between the needs of competent government and the tricks of the political trade. There is nothing to gain from getting a speechwriter to wrap all this up in some cloudy and unconvincing “vision”.