Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, seen here giving a speech in 2008, was voted Britain's most boring speaker, ahead of footballer David Beckham and actress Kate Winslet, according to a poll published Wednesday.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is Britain's most boring speaker, ahead of footballer David Beckham and actress Kate Winslet, according to a poll published Wednesday.
Brown's cerebral style placed him ahead of Beckham, whose London cockney accent played badly in the poll, and Winslet, widely criticised in stiff upper lip Britain for her emotional acceptance speech at this year's Golden Globes.
Brown once used the phrase "post neo-classical endogenous growth theory" in a speech and one of his frequently-told jokes recalls a meeting between the late US president Ronald Reagan and former Swedish premier Olof Palme.
An aide told Reagan: "No Mr. President, he's an anti-communist", to which Reagan responded: "I don't care what kind of communist he is".
The survey, of 1,000 adults by the firm SpinVox, judged British actor Stephen Fry the best speaker.
It came as another survey found that just nine percent of Britons backed Brown's government's multi-billion pound bailout for banks, with around 90 percent saying priority should be given to protecting jobs.
That survey, also of 1,000 adults, was carried out for People's Charter for Change, founded by trade unions and left-wing lawmakers from Brown's ruling Labour Party.