Boris Johnson is still the British prime minister. This is News Review from BBC Learning English.
I'm Neil. And I'm Sian, and we are back in the studio.
So, Boris Johnson was and Boris Johnson still is the British prime minister. What's going on?
I know it's confusing but stick with us.
Yes, and don't forget it's really important to test yourself on the
vocabulary you learn and there's a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com
OK. MPs from Boris Johnson's political party have voted on whether he should resign.
About 60 per cent of Conservative MPs voted FOR Johnson to stay,
meaning 40 per cent of his own MPs have lost confidence in him.
The vote came after a report which showed that lots of Covid lockdown
rules were broken by officials working with the prime minister.
Johnson himself was fined by the police.
You've been looking at the headlines Sian. What's the vocabulary?
OK, so we have: 'Partygate',
'deadman walking' and 'draw a line under'.
This is News Review from BBC Learning English.
So, now let's have a look at our first headline.
OK. This one's from Forbes: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson survives confidence vote after
Partygate scandal.
So, we're looking at 'Partygate'. Now this is a word that exists
just for this situation - it was invented for this story.
Yeah, but there's a formula, isn't there?
There is, yes, and it goes back to the 1970s,
in America, a political scandal - the president resigned -
it was called Watergate.
And for some reason the word 'gate' has become a suffix which we add to say that
there's a scandal about something. So, Partygate is a scandal about a party.
Yeah, that's right, and have you got another example? There are plenty.
So, recently, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars,
and that became known as 'Slapgate'. Absolutely. OK, let's look at that again.
Let's have a look at our next headline.
This one's from the Huffington Post: Analysis: Boris Johnson is now a dead man walking.
So, we're looking at 'dead man walking'. That's a strange expression.
It is, but we're not talking literally here. The writer of this article thinks that Boris Johnson
doesn't have a political future. He thinks he's going to lose his job - not die.
So this expression is about people's futures, isn't it?
That's right, and it's from prison language originally. A person waiting to be executed,
to be killed for the crime they committed, was said to be a dead man walking. Not literally here.
Can you tell us how we use it? So nowadays you could say, for example: A football manager
whose team has been losing over and over again. One more game or one more defeat, and they will be
fired. And that manager is a dead man walking. OK, let's have a look at that one more time.
Let's have a look at our next headline, please. This one's from the BBC:
Time to draw a line under Partygate, Boris Johnson tells cabinet.
Well, there's that word 'Partygate' again but here we are looking at the expression
'draw a line under' which means that something has finished -
it's time to stop thinking about it.
Yes exactly so Boris Johnson has decided Partygate is over, it's finished,
and people should stop talking about it although others may disagree with him.
Yeah. OK, so Sian, I used to argue with my kids every night about bedtime,
and I decided just to stop, and to move on from it. Can I say I drew a line under it?
Not really, Neil, because
we use this more for official, it's more official language - more formal.
So in the context of work or politicians use it a lot.
Here you could say we've decided to move on, we've got, let's get over it instead.
OK, let's have a look at that again.
So we had 'Partygate' - any scandal just add 'gate' to the end.
'Dead man walking' describes a person whose current situation is going to end.
And 'draw a line under something': Stop talking about it - move on.
But before you move on don't forget there's a quiz on our website and app,
so go to bbclearningenglish.com.
Thanks for joining us, and goodbye.
Goodbye.