MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
London mayor election 2008
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Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/esl/london-mayor-election-2008-335
Description

The candidates at the election to be a mayor in London will respond to selected YouTube user questions on BBC London News.

Transcript

Whether it’s bendy buses, crime, the Olympics or housing, everyone wants their say on how this city is run. Our journalists and presenters put questions to the candidates who want to be mayor every day, but, what do you want to ask them?

My question for Brian Paddick is: if you became mayor, what would you do about ++++ on buses, smashing up the seats and graffitiing everywhere.

My question for Boris would be: London is a 24-hour city, but the tube closes at midnight. What you gonna do about it?

My question for Ken is, err, is he gonna do anything for the price of transport in London?

My question to you is, what is the difference between the three of you and what are you actually going to do to improve life for all of us Londoners.

Now BBC London is teaming up with the video sharing website YouTube to help you record your questions for Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick.

You will be able to submit your video question up to thirty seconds in duration, and it’s really easy. All you need to do is go to YouTube’s London Mayor Channel. We’ll then take a selection of your questions and our presenter Reeve ++++ will put them to the mayoral candidates in a programme on BBC1. And if you’d like to see more, there’ll be full-up versions available in YouTube.

So now, you can join the conversation on what matters for London. Go to YouTube’s London Mayor Channel now, and upload your 30-second video question. 

Explanations

BENDY BUSES= a long bus which looks like two buses joined in the middle by a kind of accordion structure, so that when it turns, it can bend in the middle. There are not many of them in London, and they are talking about stopping their production.

EVERYONE WANTS THEIR SAY= everyone wants to express their opinion.

TO RUN A CITY= to govern a city, to rule it.

MAYOR= the politician who runs a population. It is pronounced: /meə*/

SMASH UP= destroy, break.

A 24-HOUR CITY= a city that never sleeps, where there are always people around.

THE TUBE= a colloquial way to say "the underground" (BrE) or "the subway" (AmE). It is a train that usually goes underground in the cities.

YOU GONNA DO= you are going to do.

IMPROVE= make better.

TEAM UP WITH= work together with.

SUBMIT= send

MAYORAL= the adjective derived from the noun "mayor". Mayoral candidates are the people who are campaigning to be a mayor.

PROGRAMME (BrE)= PROGRAM (AmE) (different spelling but same pronunciation)

ON BBC= notice that when we’re talking about television we use the preposition ON.

FULL-UP VERSION= a complete version, not abbreviated.

AVAILABLE= that you can see or use.

WHAT MATTERS= what is important.

UPLOAD= on the Internet, when you get a file from the Net to your computer we call that "to download". The opposite, to send a file from your computer to the Net, is "to upload".