2015考研英语阅读奥斯本身份之谜

　　TheOsborne identity奥斯本身份之谜

　　As he prepares for his second budget, thechancellor of the exchequer remains a mystery tomany in Westminster

　　奥斯本正酝酿上任后第二份财政预算，对于西敏斯特的众议员来说，这位财政大臣依旧是个谜。

　　NO OTHER office of state carries the mystique ofchancellor of the exchequer, a job that comes withalmost prime-ministerial power but only a rare dutyto enter the spotlight. The next of these occasionscomes on March 23rd, when George Osborne delivers his second budget. Coalition governmenthas left him even less visible, and less understood, than he might have been: Nick Clegg, theLiberal Democrat deputy prime minister, has become the second face of the coalition,alongside David Cameron, the prime minister.

　　没有其他的政府职务会比财政大臣一职更为神秘。财政大臣一职虽权比首相但是很少抛头露面。而这样的情况将在3月23日再次得到印证，届时，奥斯本将公布他的第二份财政预算。由于政府是联合执政，这让本来让人捉摸不透的他变得愈发神秘，愈发不为人所知。代表自民党的副首相尼克克莱格成了执政联盟的二把手，仅次于首相卡梅隆。

　　Mr Osbornes elusiveness would matter less, were the gap between his public profile and hisinfluence smaller. His plan virtually to eliminate the structural deficit in this parliament is thegovernments main task; the parallel project to reform the public services takes place withinbudgetary limits set by him. But his sway extends beyond the Treasury, where hisseriousness and technical command have surprised civil servants who expected theneophyte of popular pre-general election caricature. Mr Osborne also does much of thegovernments political thinking. He is often the dominant voice in the kind of strategymeetingsmany of which Mr Cameron lets him chairin which he first shone as a young adviserin the 1990s.

　　如果奥斯本先生的公共形象和他的影响力没有如此显著的差异的话，他的不为人知也就不那么重要了。但是他提出的计划事实上是要在本届议会中通过一项消除结构赤字的提案，而这恰好是政府的主要任务。同时开展的公共服务改革项目也在他制定的预算限制内进行。在财政部，他以严肃的作风和专业的指令让众多公务员大吃一惊，他们原以为他只是一个初出茅庐，在预选中大受欢迎的政治新手罢了。但是他的影响并不仅限于财政部内。同时，许多政府的政治决策也是由他在运筹帷幄。他的声音主导着这类政策会议其中的许多会议卡梅隆交由他来主持早在90年代时，他就以年轻的顾问的形象首次在这类会议中脱颖而出。

　　He had few allies in the Conservative Party in opposition, but a support base is now growingunder him. His special advisers are the best in the government. There are Osbornite MPs, suchas Matthew Hancock and Greg Hands. His stock has risen on his partys right: many who oncemistrusted his desire to move the Tories to the centre ground now see him as a more vigilantguardian of Tory views in the coalition than Mr Cameron.

　　在保守党内部他没什么盟友，但是越来越多的人支持他。他的特别顾问都是政府里的精英。还有一些奥斯本方阵的议员，譬如马修汉考克和格雷戈汉斯。同时他也获得更多右翼人士的青睐：很多人曾怀疑他希望保守党逐渐走向中间路线的动机，但现在他们认为他在执政联盟中能比卡梅隆更忠诚地捍卫保守党的观点。

　　None of this means that Mr Osborne is the real prime minister, as some maintain. MrCamerons decisions ultimately carry the day. Neither is their relationship anything like asfraught as that between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Mr Osborne is ambitious but knowsthat any opportunity to lead his party or country is years away. He also knows that, as ourpre-budget opinion poll demonstrates , voters are yet to warm to him.

　　但是也有人认为，这一切并不意味着奥斯本就是真正的首相。说到底，还是卡梅隆说了算。而且他们之间的关系完全不似戈登布朗和托尼布莱尔之间那样令人担忧。奥斯本先生虽踌躇满志，但是他明白还要过几年才能有机会担任党魁或者国家元首。同时他清楚的知道，正如《经济学家》在预算公布前开展的民意测验所显示的那样，选民们对他还是不感冒。

　　Still, grasping the differences between the two menis crucial to understanding how the governmentworks. The contrast between Mr Osborne, a lifelongmetropolitan, and Mr Cameron, a son of the ruralhome counties, is often said to lie in the formerssocial liberalism. But Mr Osborne is more liberal onmoral issues such as abortion and gay rights than onlaw and order. And on foreign policy, Mr Cameronwould get an easier ride at a trendy London dinnerparty than hawkish Mr Osborne.

　　即便如此，搞清楚这两人之间的不同对于了解政府的运作是必不可少的。奥斯本和卡梅隆的不同之处在于奥斯本主张社会自由主义：奥斯本在大城市里出生长大，而卡梅隆则来自农村地区的一个小县城。但是比起法制问题，奥斯本在许多道德问题上比如堕胎和同性恋权利方面更倾向于自由。在外交政策上，假如卡梅隆和鹰派作风的奥斯本共同出席一场伦敦的时尚宴会的话，卡梅隆可能会更受欢迎。

　　The real difference between them lies in their approach to politics. Mr Osborne is obsessedwith winning. He is less moved by abstract ideas such as the Big Society. He is more inclinedto belligerence towards political opponents, whether they be trade unions or the Labour Party.Some Tories think they would now be governing alone had Mr Osborne run last years electioncampaign by himself.

　　他们两人最根本的区别在于从政之道。奥斯本渴望胜利。他对于一些类似于大社会之类的抽象理念不那么感兴趣。对于政治对手，他更愿意奉陪到底， 不论是工会还是工党。一些保守党人认为要是去年的大选由奥斯本来参选的话，现在他们已经单独掌权了。

　　This hunger for victory comes from tasting multiple defeats as an adviser. Mr Cameron at leastworked on the Tories triumphant 1992 election campaign and took a sojourn in business during the partys dog days later in the 1990s . The chancellor clocked that the Tories needed to soften their right-wing image long before Mr Cameron did.

　　这种对于胜利的渴望来自他担任顾问期间多次的失败经历。至少，卡梅隆在1992保守党大选胜出时有所作为，之后在90年代末期保守党光景惨淡时还短暂从商。这位财政大臣曾经抨击保守党人告诫他们需要淡化自身的右倾形象。这一主张远早于卡梅隆。

　　In his economics, however, Mr Osborne is an old-fashioned Conservative. His free-marketinstincts sometimes show; he once flirted with the idea of a flat, rather than progressive,income tax. He has been restrained in punishing the banking sector for its part in the financialcrisis.

　　但是在经济方面，奥斯本则是老派保守党作风。他有时会展现出自己骨子里对自由市场的支持。他曾经尝试以固定所得税代替累进所得税。在惩罚银行在金融危机中扮演的角色时，他表现得十分克制持重。

　　But, when it comes to the public finances, Mr Osborne is a sober fiscal hawk rather than agung-ho Reaganite tax-cutter. Perhaps his best judgment came in opposition, in the periodbefore the financial crash, when he resisted calls from the right to promise an overall tax cut.The subsequent crisis vindicated him, but Britains relapse into negative growth in the lastquarter has brought new demands for tax cuts, or, from the left, slower spending cuts. Votersare worried, as our poll shows.

　　但是，涉及到公共财政时，奥斯本是一个头脑清醒的财务鹰派人士，而不是激进的里根式减税者。可能恰恰是在反对减税上，他做出了最明智的决定：在金融危机的前夕，他顶住右翼要求整体减税的呼声。随后的金融危机证实了他的英明所在。但是英国经济在去年最后一个季度再次陷入负增长，减税之诉求卷土重来，左翼则号召缩减开支。正如我们的民意测验所显示的那样，选民们现在有些担忧。

　　Committed as he is to austerity, in his budget Mr Osborne is likelier to reform taxes than tocut them. That commitment is a political as well as an economic gamble: a double-dip, or evenprolonged slow growth, would wound him. The economy will determine whether his credibilitykeeps soaring, or has already peaked.

　　尽管他致力于财政紧缩，但是在预算中奥斯本更有可能改革而不是减少税收。这种努力既是一场政治赌博，也是一场经济冒险：若出现二次探底，甚至更长时期的缓慢增长，都会对他不利。经济的起伏将决定他的信誉是继续飙升，还是就此打住。