BBC Learning English
Words in the News
15th August 2011
Social fightback after English riots
David Cameron is promising a "social fightback" in response to the rioting and looting in
England last week. The prime minister says he's determined to take on long-standing social
problems. The BBC s Ben Geoghegan reports.
The prime minister will say the riots are the results of social problems which have "festered
for decades and which have now exploded in our face."
He ll add that in parts of the country there has been a slow motion moral collapse and he ll
blame the state and its agencies for sometimes encouraging the worst aspects of human nature.
Mr Cameron will point to the riots as a reason to renew his campaign to fix what he s referred
to before as "Britain's broken society" so there is to be a review of a whole range of policy
areas, including schools, parenting and welfare in order to find solutions.
The Labour leader, however, will warn against what he says are knee-jerk gimmicks which
haven't been properly thought through.
He ll accuse the prime minister of taking a simplistic view of the riots, by seeing them as a
problem of culture alone without considering the impact of lack of opportunity and
deprivation.
Ben Geoghegan, BBC News
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
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Vocabulary and definitions
festered
Become worse because they have not been dealt with
decades tens of years
moral collapse dramatic fall in good standards of behaviour
agencies government organisations
renew start again
welfare services provided by the state especially to people who
can't afford them
knee-jerk gimmicks measures which are not properly thought out and designed
to get an immediate positive reaction
simplistic uncomplicated
lack of opportunity having no chance to improve your social situation
deprivation not having things you need for a basic level of life
More on this story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14524834
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/06/110815_witn_riots_fightback_page.shtml
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2011
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