James Purnell
Profile

James Purnell

B1IntermediateJuly 18, 202614 min

The New Labour old boy was at one time a front runner to lead his Party. But after a scandalous resignation from Gordon Brown’s Cabinet, it seemed his political career was over…until now. James Purnell grew up between France and Guildford. Spending his teenage years at the fee-paying Royal Grammar School, he was known for his distinctive Parisian style and ‘Rupert the Bear’ trousers. A fan of the theatre, golf, and student politics, he began establishing a network that would prove fruitful for a high-flying career. This continued at Oxford - where he studied Politics, Philosop...

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Sentence 5 of 12 · 0:21

It was a football team called Demon Eyes.

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showing Tony Blair with devil eyes.

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  • 96% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 156 words a minute: a natural pace.
  • 58 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

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0:00

Thank you for downloading Profile. This week's presenter is Becky Milligan. This week, a footballer. No, don't worry, not an England player. Instead, we're going way back to 1998. It was a football team called Demon Eyes.

0:21

Named after the infamous 1997 Conservative General Election poster, showing Tony Blair with devil eyes. and they used to have a kick around on a Sunday morning. The team, a who's who of New Labour rising stars.

0:38

Among them... Andy, you know, just waited for the right moment and ran onto it. Andy Burnham. Andy was a striker.

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