New UK PM is Liz Truss: BBC News Review

Bye bye, Boris. Hello, Liz. The UK has a new prime minister.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I’m Neil. And I’m Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about today’s story.

And don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video

and try the quiz on our website. Now, it's time for our story.

Boris Johnson is out and Liz Truss is in

after winning the ruling Conservative Party leadership election.

Johnson resigned after a series of scandals.

Prime Minister Truss will have to deal with urgent issues,

such as the energy crisis.

You’ve been looking at the headlines, Beth.

What’s the vocabulary?

We have 'succeeds', 'bagged' and 'storm clouds gathering'.

This is News Review, from BBC Learning English.

Let’s have a look at our first headline.

This one comes from The Washington Post.

So, the meaning of this headline

is that Liz Truss has replaced Boris Johnson.

She has 'succeeded' him.

We're looking at this word 'succeed',

which you probably know with a different meaning,

connected to doing well.

Yes, you’re right.

So, we use 'succeed' to mean doing well,

or getting the result you want.

For example, if you 'succeed' in a job interview, then it means you got the job.

But in this headline it has a different meaning.

‘Succeed’ can also mean taking over from an official position.

Yeah. So, the headline is saying that Liz Truss has taken over, or replaced,

Boris Johnson - she has 'succeeded' him.

And when we use the verb 'succeed' with this meaning, the person

who is being replaced comes after the verb.

Now, Beth, this sounds quite formal, this use of 'succeed'.

Yeah, well, in this context and with this meaning, it is quite formal.

So, you might see it written down in headlines, articles, reports.

It’s unlikely that you would hear people like you and me just using it

in casual conversationn, because we're more likely to say replace

or take over from. Yeah. It's kind of for official positions,

and used very commonly when we talk about royalty.

So, when a king or a queen dies,

the next one 'succeeds' them. Yes, and we can call this process

‘succession’. So, according to the British Royal Family’s rules of 'succession',

when the Queen dies, Prince Charles will become King,

so he will 'succeed' the Queen.

Let’s take look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one comes from France 24.

The headline is saying that Liz Truss has replaced Boris Johnson.

It calls her a loyalist, and

that means that she was a strong supporter of him before.

That’s not the word we’re looking at, though.

We are looking at ‘bagged’.

Now, I’m sure you all know what a bag is –

it's the thing that you keep your phone, keys and your shopping in.

That's right, a bag is a thing, it's a noun,

but here, it's being used as a verb - 'to bag' something.

Yes, so we can use 'bag' as a verb,

to mean winning or getting something.

So, in this case, Liz Truss has got the job of being the British prime minister.

And we can use this with competitions, you could say that

he 'bagged' the top prize.

But it's quite informal. This is a kind of slang.

That’s right.

But, why are we seeing this slang it in a newspaper headline?

It's a serious topic. A newspaper is often a serious place for discussion

Why is it there? Well, just because it’s in the newspaper,

doesn’t mean it has to be formal.

So, this is a big story at the moment.

The newspapers are trying to grab all of the readers' attention

and sometimes using slang can make it appeal to a wider audience.

Beth, have I ever told you about the time I 'bagged' a top prize?

No, you haven't. Tell me. When I was ten years old I won the

breakdancing competiton at my youth club. Wow, that's amazing.  

Can you show us now? No, I don't want to end up in hospital.  

Fair enough. Let's have a look at that again.  

Let's have a look at our next headline then, please.

This one comes from The Independent.

So, we are looking at the expression ‘storm clouds gathering’.

Which is very dramatic-sounding, Beth. Do you like rain?

No, not really.

But, we’re not actually talking about real rain or real storms in this headline.

So, it's used in a metaphorical sense to mean that something bad is going to happen.

So, the ‘storm clouds’ represent the bad things

and the ‘gathering’ means it's going to happen soon.

Yeah. So, according to the headline writer, the clouds are gathering over Liz Truss,

as if it’s going to rain on her, meaning that difficult times are ahead.

Yes. She has become prime minister at a challenging time for the UK.

There is the energy crisis and a possible economic recession,

so she does have some big issues to deal with.

Yes, and she herself has used the expression 'ride out the storm'.

She says she needs to ride out the storm, again there that metaphor about storms,

meaning that difficult times are ahead.

OK, let's have a look at that one more time.

We’ve had 'succeeds' – takes over an official position.

'Bagged' – got or won something.

And 'storm clouds gathering' – it looks like something bad is going to happen.

Don’t forget there’s a quiz on our website at bbclearningenglish.com.

Thanks for joining us and goodbye. Bye.