2020年经济学人 白芝浩专栏--失去控制(2)

But fear and charisma¹ only work so long as they are accompanied by competence². The backbenchers who once feared Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings are now more worried about the fury of their own constituents³. There is talk of emperors without clothes and wizards behind the curtain. The ministers Mr Johnson demotdemoted in his early months may now have a chance for revenge.

但是恐惧和魅力只有伴随着能力才能发挥作用。曾经害怕约翰逊和卡明斯的后排议员现在更担心自己选民的愤怒。有人说是没有衣服的皇帝和幕后的巫师。约翰逊早年降职的部长们现在可能有机会复仇了。

Downing Street has woken up to the fact that it has a partymanagement problem on its hands and is making an effort to hold more meetings with backbenchers and ministerial assistants. The “town hall” faction⁴ in Downing Street—people who worked with Mr Johnson when he was mayor of London, led by Sir Eddie Lister— are much more emollient⁵ than Mr Cummings. The whips should regain⁶ some power when they can do their arm-twisting in person rather than over Zoom⁷. The leadership can also take some comfort from the fact that, despite much bad news, the nine polls taken since June 1st show the Tories leading Labour by between two and eight points.

唐宁街已经意识到它手头上有一个党派管理问题，正在努力与后排议员和部长助理举行更多的会议。唐宁街的“市政厅”派系——在约翰逊担任伦敦市长时曾与他共事，由艾迪·李斯特爵士领导——比卡明斯温和得多。当鞭子可以亲自施加力量而不是通过缩放时，它们应该能重新获得一些力量。尽管有很多坏消息，但自6月1日以来进行的9次民意调查显示，保守党领先工党2至8个百分点，这也让领导层感到欣慰。

But righting the ship will be difficult. The public’s growing distrust of the powers-that-be has been exacerbated⁸ by the progression from simple messages (“don’t go out”) to more nuanced ones (“be aware”), and there are plenty of timber-shaking covid storms on the horizon. Unemployment could surge to over 3m when the furlough scheme winds down. Britain’s poor performance is becoming painfully obvious as locked-down Britons watch images of continentals⁹ relaxing in cafes and returning to work.

但是要把船扶正是很困难的。从简单的信息(“不要出去”)到更细微的信息(“要注意”)，公众对权力的日益不信任加剧了，而且地平线上还有大量摇晃木材的新冠肺炎风暴。休假计划结束后，失业率可能会飙升至300万以上。随着被封锁的英国人观看大陆人在咖啡馆放松并重返工作岗位的画面，英国糟糕的表现变得明显而痛苦。

More and more people worry that Mr Johnson was brought in to solve one problem—getting Brexit done—but is now confronted with an entirely¹⁰ different one. A Cabinet that was selected on the basis of ideological¹¹ soundness rather than competence seems overwhelmed by events. Two figures, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary who has blown hot and cold over whether children can go back to school, and Robert Jenrick, the local-government minister, who is entangled¹² in a scandal with an insalubrious party donor¹³, look particularly dismal¹⁴. Mr Cummings’s formidable skills in running campaigns have not translated to governing the country. You can’t gaslight a pandemic.

越来越多的人担心约翰逊之前只要解决英国脱欧这一个问题，但现在却面临一个完全不同的问题。一个基于意识形态而非能力的内阁似乎被各种事件所压倒。教育部长加文·威廉森对孩子们能否重返学校的问题争论不休，当地政府部长罗伯特·詹里克与一名不健康的捐赠者陷入丑闻，这两名人员看起来特别令人沮丧。卡明斯在竞选活动中的强大技能并没有转化为治理国家。你不能阻止疫情。

1 charisma   

n.(大众爱戴的)领袖气质，魅力

参考例句：

• He has enormous charisma. He is a giant of a man.他有超凡的个人魅力，是个伟人。
• I don't have the charisma to pull a crowd this size.我没有那么大的魅力，能吸引这么多人。

2 competence   

n.能力，胜任，称职

参考例句：

• This mess is a poor reflection on his competence.这种混乱情况说明他难当此任。
• These are matters within the competence of the court.这些是法院权限以内的事。

3 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

5 emollient   

n.镇痛剂；缓和药；adj.使柔软的；安慰性的，起镇静作用的

参考例句：

• The central character is a deceptively emollient senior figure in a Conservative Government.核心人物是保守党政府内一个貌似仁和的高层人物。
• Glycerine is the preferred emollient.甘油是首选的润滑剂。

6 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

7 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

8 exacerbated   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The symptoms may be exacerbated by certain drugs. 这些症状可能会因为某些药物而加重。
• The drugs they gave her only exacerbated the pain. 他们给她吃的药只是加重了她的痛楚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 continentals   

n.（欧洲）大陆人( continental的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The English and the Continentals were already at odds. 英国人与大陆的伙伴已经不和。 来自辞典例句
• There is a big future for these crops once the Continentals resolve their farm strucure problem. 一旦大陆国家解决了他们的农场结构问题，这些作物有远大前途。 来自辞典例句

10 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

11 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

12 entangled   

adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The bird had become entangled in the wire netting. 那只小鸟被铁丝网缠住了。
• Some military observers fear the US could get entangled in another war. 一些军事观察家担心美国会卷入另一场战争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

14 dismal   

adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的

参考例句：

• That is a rather dismal melody.那是一支相当忧郁的歌曲。
• My prospects of returning to a suitable job are dismal.我重新找到一个合适的工作岗位的希望很渺茫。