The Telegraph has the rather surprising story of Jacob Rigg’s something-to-tell-the-grandkids-about claim to fame:
The US President-elect’s speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago on Tuesday was one of the most widely-watched and repeated political addresses in recent history.
It was also partly written in a flat in Notting Hill, West London.
Parts of the speech were crafted by Jacob Rigg, a volunteer advisor to the Obama campaign.
Mr Rigg works for The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, which lobbies and advises on tax issues, including the rules that apply to non-domiciled foreigners living in the UK.
He also helped run Chris Huhne’s campaign for the Liberal Democrat leadership last year.
You can read the full story here. And if you haven’t yet sat down to watch President-elect Obama’s remarkable oration, you can catch up with it here.
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13 Comments
So, who is Jacob Rigg? No Lib Dems I know have ever heard of him.
He is from Wiltshire (Warminster I think) and moved to Cheltenham to work.
Whilst here, he decided to leave his job and work full time on Martin Horwood’s 2005 election campaign.
He was later employed by Martin as a researcher in London, where he stayed for just over a year.
He was also one of the press officers for Chris Huhne’s leadership bid.
I wonder if he’s a relative?
We are all relatives – a relative of whom?
Ah yes, my surname doesn’t appear on hre, does it? I am a Rigg also.
He’s a very bright guy, a very hard-working and dedicated Lib Dem, a fantastic honer of speeches and a nice chap with it..
There’s a good chance you are related: around 70%. (And I don’t mean in the going-back-to-the-7-mothers-of-the-human-race sense.)
Yeah, it’s not the commonest of surnames. I discovered that I’m related to a Lib Dem councillor up where my dad comes from via Lib Dem blogs, too. It seems Lib Demmery runs in the family…
A big difference between American and British culture is America’s love for that oratorical style once descibed as the “heroic lachrymose”.
One can admire Obama’s style from afar but no British politican could get away with it here. (Despite that, I fear we’re about to suffer the appalling efforts of some cut-price Obamas in British politics).
If you’ve ever worked for an American corporation and had to endure your CEO in full flood on the podium, you will know what I mean.
And some Amercians seem to share our feelings. See this clip of Steve Martin for a satisfying antidote:
Jake’s a great guy with a dedicated record to the Lib Dems, so I’m not quite sure what “Who is Jacob Rigg?” is getting at.
He’s one of my fellow K&C members (for much of the week anyway). I suspected something might be up when he was unavailable to deliver any of the latest Focus in our Council target ward.
Well done Obama and all that, but I think that Jacob needs to have a long hard think about his priorities…
“I suspected something might be up when he was unavailable to deliver any of the latest Focus in our Council target ward.” I don’t know. Some people use any excuse 🙂
The man Jake’s a god.
The Lib Dems could learn a couple of things from President-Elect Obama, how to win the public’s heart with its good ideas being one of them.