Wind at your back

Wind at your back

I heard from Ernesto from Mexico City last week, and his favorite sport is running. So Ernesto is going to understand this expression, “wind at your back.” If you’re out for a run, or if you’re out on your bicycle, would your rather have the wind at your back, or would you rather have the wind in your face? I’d much rather have the wind at my back. I’d much rather the wind be blowing in the direction that I’m going, instead of against me.

Any golfers out there? Would you rather tee off with the wind in your face—blowing toward you—or with the wind at your back? I used to play golf and I didn’t want any wind at all; I had a hard time hitting the ball straight without having to consider the wind! But if there’s wind outside, you’d much rather have it at your back instead of in your face.

And we use this term metaphorically a lot. When we say a person has the wind at his back, we mean that external forces are moving in the same direction as that person. It means that person’s job is going to be easier because of these external forces. Boris Johnson now has the wind at his back in his quest to sign a deal to withdraw from the European Union. The people just gave him a strong show of support. He won a big majority. He has the support he needs to get this done.

It’s not always the case. In the last British election, the Conservative prime minister Theresa May lost her majority. She was still the prime minister after that election, but only because of support from other, smaller parties. She went to the voters to get support for her Brexit plans, and she lost seats. She did not have the wind at her back, and her job was so much more difficult.

JR’s song of the week

It’s December 19 today, so that means this is the last Thursday episode before Christmas. And JR has selected “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” as the song of the week. That’s a famous Christmas song going way back to the 1950s. It was written by a singer named Meredith Willson, but was made popular by the classic singer Bing Crosby. But the version JR has selected as the song of the week today is the version by the Canadian singer Michael Bublé. So our song of the week to get us in the Christmas spirit is, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” by Michael Bublé.

That’s all for today’s episode. Coming up on Monday, we’ll talk a little more about Britain’s choice, give you a little more context on what’s happening there. You’re learning English and a lot of you want to know about what’s going on in English-speaking countries, so we’ll do one more episode on Britain on Monday.

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