今年的英国大选是在英国经济经历了上世纪30年代以来最严重危机后,开始踏上初步复苏之路的形势下举行的。工党领袖戈登·布朗、保守党领袖戴维·卡梅伦和自由民主党领袖尼克·克莱格于今年5月先后举行了三次电视辩论,这是英国大选历史上首次电视辩论。“千年老三”的自由民主党领袖尼克·克莱格,成为观众心目中的“最佳辩手”。
6月大选结果尘埃落定,主要政党无一赢得多数议席,从而出现1974年以来首个“悬浮议会”(Hung Parliament),保守党和自民党联合执政,卡梅伦成为英国近200年来最年轻的首相。我们就来回顾一下这三党魁是如何通过台前雄辩赢得选民的支持,成为英国未来的希望的。
英式发音 适合精听
Britain’s Big Show “三英”争雄
GORDON BROWN: We have got to make a decision now, about how we secure the recovery this year.
DAVID CAMERON: Choose hope over fear, because we have incredibly exciting and 1)optimistic plans for the future of our country.
NICK CLEGG: Don’t let them tell you that the only choice is between two old parties who’ve been playing 2)pass the parcel with your government for 65 years now.
戈登·布朗:我们现在必须要做出决定了,关于我们今年该如何确保经济复苏的决定。
戴维·卡梅伦:选择希望,战胜恐惧,因为我们对于祖国的未来有着极为激动人心和积极向上的计划。
尼克·克莱格:不要让他们告诉你,你只能在两个老党派之中作出选择,他们玩轮流执政的游戏已经65年了。
Overnight Success 一辩成名
(令许多人大跌眼镜的是,在首场辩论中,当布朗和卡梅伦猛烈地互相攻讦时,克莱格“单枪挑双将”,一辩成名,让布朗90分钟内说了7次“我同意克莱格的看法”。首场辩论后,表现出色的克莱格民调支持率曾一度抛离其他两党领导人。)
ALASTAIR STEWART (Host): Thank you Mr. Brown. Mr. Clegg.
CLEGG: I’m not sure if you’re like me, but the more they attack each other, the more they sound exactly the same.
All I would appeal for is just a bit of honesty in this debate. People know that money is tight. People know that you can’t promise something for nothing. You can’t say you’re going to fill the 3)deficit tomorrow and you’re going to give lots and lots of 4)tax breaks to people, inheritance tax breaks for double millionaires, tax breaks for...what is it...one in three hand-picked married couples, and also extra, extra money to the 5)NHS without explaining how you’re going to do it.
STEWART: Mr. Cameron?
CLEGG: I say again there’s something wrong...
STEWART: Mr. Cameron? Thank you, Mr. Clegg.
CAMERON: Nick Clegg is promising a £17 billion tax cut. Now, we’re saying, stop the waste of 6 billion to stop the National Insurance rise. I would love to take everyone out of their first £10,000 of income tax, Nick. It’s a beautiful idea, it’s a lovely idea. We cannot afford it. It’s all very well posing.
CLEGG: Shall I tell you how we pay for it?
STEWART: Please do, Mr. Clegg.
CLEGG: I’ll tell you how we pay for it. We would, for instance, stop the huge unfair 6)loopholes that only benefit the very wealthy at the top of the tax system. At the moment, the top 10% of earners in this country get twice as much tax 7)subsidy from all of the rest of you when they make contributions to their 8)pension pot than everybody else. We say give people tax relief on their pension contributions, but make sure that they are the same. And use that money...
STEWART: Gordon Brown.
CLEGG: ..so no-one pays any income tax on the first £10,000 they earn.
STEWART: Thank you. Mr. Brown.
BROWN: Where Nick and I are agreed is that to give an inheritance tax cut to the 3,000 richest estates in the country, of £200,000 each, the biggest 9)manifesto promise that the Conservative made, is totally unfair to the rest of the population of this country. And I say to him, we will use the National Insurance to pay for health care, to pay for policing, and to pay for schools.
阿拉斯泰尔·斯图尔特(主持):谢谢你,布朗先生。克莱格先生请发言。
克莱格:我不确定你们是否和我相似,不过他俩越是互相攻击,其政纲听起来就越同出一辙。
在这场辩论中,我想要呼吁的,不过是多一分真诚。人们都知道银根吃紧。人们都知道不能空口说白话。你不能说你打算明天就填补赤字,打算为人们减免许许多多的税收,为双百万富翁们减免遗产税,为……是什么来着……从每三对已婚夫妇中精选出一对来减免税收,还有,为英国国民医疗保健服务提供额外的资金,然而却不说明你要如何去实现承诺。
斯图尔特:卡梅伦先生?
克莱格:我再说一次,有些地方欠妥……
斯图尔特:卡梅伦先生?谢谢你,克莱格先生。
卡梅伦:尼克·克莱格所承诺的是要减税170亿英镑。而我们说的是,要省下60亿英镑以阻止国民保险额的上涨。尼克,我也想把所有人的个人所得税起征点提高至一万英镑。这是个很棒的主意,这是个很动人的主意,可是我们负担不起。这一切都只是装模做样。
克莱格:要让我告诉你,我们如何支付这笔费用吗?
斯图尔特:请讲吧,克莱格先生。
克莱格:我来告诉你,我们如何支付这笔费用。我们将会,譬如说,堵住不公的庞大税收漏洞,因为这些漏洞只对处于税收系统顶层的富豪有利。目前,当处于本国收入前10%的人群为他们的养老金添砖加瓦时,他们从其他人身上所获得的税务补贴比那当中任何人的都要多上一倍。我们总是说要给缴付养老金的人减免税额,但也要确保一视同仁。并且使用这笔钱……
斯图尔特:戈登·布朗。
克莱格:……这样一来就没有人需要为其收入中前一万英镑支付任何所得税了。
斯图尔特:谢谢你。布朗先生请发言。
布朗:尼克和我均赞成的一点是,如果根据保守党迄今为止所作的最雄心勃勃的政纲承诺,要为这个国家里3000份价值最高的遗产每份减免20万英镑遗产税的话,这对于这个国家里其余的人来说却是完全不公平的。于是我跟他说,我们将会利用国民保险来支付医疗保健、治安维护和学校教育所需。
Tit for Tat 针锋相对
(在英国财政赤字高企,经济复苏还不稳定之时,经济问题成为各党“推介”自己、“攻击”别人的主要武器。各党在大选辩论中均提出要削减开支,但各自的手段有所差异。)
STEWART: Mr. Cameron.
CAMERON: What matters is what comes out. I went to a Hull police station the other day. They had five different police cars, and they were just about to buy a £73,000 Lexus. There’s money that could be saved to get the police on the frontline. The Metropolitan Police have 400 uniformed officers, officers in their human resources department. Our police officers should be crime fighters, not form-fillers, and that’s what needs to change.
BROWN: Absolutely.
BROWN: There’s a lot to this job, and 10)as you saw yesterday, I don’t get all of it right, but I do know how to run the economy in good times and in bad.
David is proposing that there be cuts in public spending now—6 billion—and that will shrink the economy at a time when we need to support the economy. We cannot afford to lose jobs and businesses and lose growth now. We must maintain the recovery and support it, and please let us not make the mistake of the 1930s and the 1980s and the 1990s, and let us support the economy until the recovery is assured.
CAMERON: Let me respond to this point about the £6 billion as directly as I possibly can. £6 billion saving this year, so we stop the jobs tax next year, that means saving one out of every £100 that the government spends. That is the 11)glossy leaflet that comes through your door from the local council. That’s one in £100.
CLEGG: What you can’t do—and this is where I really disagree with David Cameron and Gordon Brown—is [to] try and fool you into thinking that just efficiency saving’s enough. You can’t fill the black hole by just a few savings on pot plants and paper clips in 12)Whitehall.
CAMERON: People can remember the record of 13 years, they remember who it was who abolished the 13)10p tax that hit some of the poorest people in the country the hardest. They remember the 14)measly 75p increase on pensioners that Gordon Brown was responsible for. And let me say this, the whole reason we’re having this debate about how difficult it is to get taxes down, how difficult it’s going to be to cut spending, is because this Prime Minister and this Government have left our economy in such a complete mess with a budget deficit that, this year, is forecast to be bigger than 15)that of Greece.
斯图尔特:卡梅伦先生请发言。
卡梅伦:(政府投入资金后)重要的是结果。前几天我去过赫尔警察局。他们拥有五辆不同的警车,而且他们还要购买一辆价值73000英镑的雷克萨斯。有些钱可以省下来使更多的警力投入到一线工作中。伦敦警察厅的人力资源部有400名正式职员。我们的警员应该是罪恶斗士,而非表格填写员,这就是需要改革的地方。
布朗:这是当然的。
布朗:要做好这个工作牵涉到很多方面,而且正如你昨天看到的那样,我并非每一件事都处理得面面俱到,但是我确实知道如何在顺境和逆境中推动经济运行。
戴维提议现在要削减公共开支——60亿英镑——此时正值我们需要向经济提供支持之时,而这种做法会使经济减弱。现在我们无法承受失业和企业倒闭,以及经济增长下滑的后果。我们必须保持经济复苏的势头并予以支持,所以请不要让我们再犯上世纪30年代、80年代及90年代曾犯过的错误,让我们支持经济发展,直到复苏得到保障。
卡梅伦:请让我尽可能直接地回应关于60亿英镑的这一问题。只要今年能够节省60亿英镑,那么明年我们就能停止征收工作收入税。这也就意味着政府每花一百英镑就得节省出一英镑,也就是当地政务委员会从你家门下塞进来的印刷精美的宣传册的价值。这就能从每一百英镑中节省出一英镑。
克莱格:谁也做不到的是——这也是我从根本上与戴维·卡梅伦和戈登·布朗意见相左的地方——试着欺骗大家去认为,只要提高效率、厉行节约就足够了。单凭在白厅里省下几盆盆栽和几盒回形针的费用,是无法填补巨大黑洞的。
卡梅伦:人们会记得这13年的记录,他们会记得是谁废除了“10便士税收”政策,让这个国家里最贫困的人民受创最深。他们会记得养老金仅仅上涨75便士的事情,而戈登·布朗应该为此负责。请允许我这么说,我们之所以在这里展开这场辩论,讨论降低税收是多么艰难,缩减开支是多么困难,其全部的原因就是因为这位首相和这届政府让我们的经济陷入一片混乱当中,且根据预测,今年我们的财政赤字将比希腊更为严重。
翻译:小狐
