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British prime minister Liz Truss resigned from her post after just 44 days in office, making her the shortest-serving leader in UK history and continuing the unprecedented political turmoil that has engulfed the country throughout 2022.
昨天，英国首相特拉斯（Liz Truss）在上任仅44天后宣布辞职，成为英国历史上任职时间最短的领导人，同时续写了一场2022年持续震荡英国的史无前例的政治风波。
“I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability,” she said from a lectern outside the official residence. “Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills, Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine threatens the security of our whole continent, and our country has been held back for too long by low economic growth.”
特拉斯在官邸外的讲台上说道：“我上任时正值国内经济和国际局势无比动荡之际：各个家庭、各家企业都在担心如何支付账单；普京在乌克兰的战争正威胁整个欧洲大陆的安全；而我们的国家因经济增长低迷而受阻已久。”
特拉斯在“任期最短的英国首相”统计排行中排名第一
特拉斯为何昙花一现？
Almost as soon as Truss had crossed the Downing Street threshold, debate began to swirl about her suitability for the role—a conversation that was temporarily paused during the period of national mourning following the queen’s death.
在特拉斯跨进唐宁街、抵达首相官邸的同时，人们就已经开始争论她是否适合这个职位。女王去世后的国丧期间，这场争论暂时停止了。
On September 23, Truss’s chancellor of the exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, delivered his mini budget, which was heralded as an initiative to stimulate the British economy—already flagging due to rampant inflation, a cost-of-living crisis, and rising fuel prices. The economic policies included an array of tax cuts that disproportionally benefitted the wealthy—including lowering income taxes for the country’s highest earners and reversing a planned rise in corporation tax—and were immediately met with fierce and widespread criticism, not just from the opposition party but also from economists and international leaders.
9月23日，特拉斯的财政大臣夸西·科沃滕（Kwasi Kwarteng）颁布了“迷你预算”政策。英国经济已经因通货膨胀、生活成本危机和燃料价格上涨而萎靡不振，而“迷你预算”被视作是刺激英国经济的举措。然而，该经济政策包括一系列对富人非常有利的减税措施，包括降低国家最高收入者的所得税，以及取消上调公司税的计划。这一政策立即广受反对党、经济学家和国际领导人的强烈批评。
前财政大臣夸西·科沃滕
The effects were disastrous. Within 24 hours, the value of the British pound plummeted, falling to an all-time low against the US dollar; the crash also prompted a large proportion of mortgage products to be taken off the market, caused interest rates to soar, and imperiled the stability of UK pension funds. Not only was the Bank of England forced to intervene, promising to buy up to £65 billion in government bonds, but the International Monetary Fund issued an uncharacteristically scathing statement about the measures, noting that they would “likely increase inequality” and urging the British government to rethink their plan.
“迷你预算”给英国带来了灾难性的影响。在24小时内，英镑暴跌，对美元汇率跌至历史最低点；经济崩盘还促使大量抵押贷款产品退出市场，导致利率飙升，并危及了英国养老基金的稳定。英国央行被迫对此进行干预，承诺购买高达650亿英镑的政府债券；国际货币基金组织(IMF)也发表了一份相当严厉的声明，指出这些措施“可能会加剧不平等”，并敦促英国政府重新考虑减税计划。
“迷你预算”对英国政府债券收益率造成的影响
Despite a planned acceleration of the declared budget for these cuts, Truss and Kwarteng’s economic experiment floundered. Eventually, on October 14, Truss asked for Kwarteng’s resignation and replaced him with former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who then went on to reverse the majority of Truss’s proposed economic plan in a humiliating U-turn for the already beleaguered prime minister. While this restored some stability to the economic turbulence of the previous weeks, many believed that given the abject failure of Truss’s signature policy of tax cuts, her days as leader were numbered.
尽管政府已经计划加快削减预算，但特拉斯和科沃滕的经济试验仍举步维艰。最终，在10月14日，特拉斯要求科沃滕辞职，并任命前卫生大臣杰里米·亨特（Jeremy Hunt）接任财政大臣。亨特随后推翻了特拉斯提出的大部分经济计划，这种180度的大转变为已经陷入困境的特拉斯平添了几分尴尬羞耻。虽然这让前几周动荡的经济稍微趋稳，但许多人认为，特拉斯标志性的减税政策遭遇了惨败，因此她担任领导人的日子也将屈指可数。
断送首相生涯的“致命打击”
Despite polls indicating that Truss was the least popular prime minister in British history, she seemed determined to soldier on, saying as recently as the day before her resignation that she was “a fighter and not a quitter.”
尽管当时的民意调查显示特拉斯是英国历史上最不受欢迎的首相，但她似乎决心坚持到底。就在辞职前一天，她还表示自己“是战士而非懦夫”。
There were two final nails in Truss’s coffin. The first came after her pick for foreign secretary, the former barrister Suella Braverman, was forced to resign on October 19 after breaching the ministerial code by sending a government document to a colleague from a personal email address. Already a controversial pick for the cabinet due to her position on the right of the already right-wing Conservative party and her proposed draconian immigration policies, Braverman set off a political bomb by writing a resignation letter that was highly critical of Truss’s premiership.
而最后的两次致命打击将特拉斯牢牢地钉在了失败的棺椁中：第一次打击发生在特拉斯所提名的外交部长——曾任律师的苏拉·布雷弗曼（Suella Braverman）于10月19日被迫辞职之后。布雷弗曼用个人电邮地址向一名同事发送了政府文件，违反了外交部长守则。布雷弗曼在本已偏向右翼的保守党中保持着更加右翼的立场，并且制定了严格的移民政策，因此她已是备受争议的内阁人选。在布雷弗曼的辞职信中，她强烈批评了特拉斯身为首相的工作，此举如炸弹般引爆了英国政坛。
前外交部长苏拉·布雷弗曼
The most devastating blow, however, came after a chaotic vote was held on the future of fracking in the UK. Given the Conservatives had pledged to put a moratorium on fracking in their 2019 manifesto—and the fact that many in Truss’s party and even her cabinet have been outspoken critics of fracking—the vote, which attempted to defeat a Labour bill to ban the practice outright, quickly descended into lawlessness.
最具破坏性的第二次打击则发生在英国就水力压裂技术*的未来所举行的一次混乱投票上。保守党曾在2019年的宣言中承诺暂停使用水力压裂技术，且特拉斯所在的保守党、乃至特拉斯内阁中的许多成员都曾直言批评该技术的使用。因此，这场试图推翻工党提出的法案、不再禁用该技术的投票，很快就陷入了昏天黑地的混乱之中。
译注：水力压裂技术，是一门以水钻入地下，从页岩中回收石油和天然气的技术。在环保人士的反对，以及对引发地震的担忧之后，英国曾于2019年停用该技术。而后随着能源价格的上涨，特拉斯政府转而支持运用该技术，以提高英国国内的天然气供应量。
Ministers were told earlier in the day by the whips that the vote would be a motion of confidence in the government, meaning that if they refused to vote along the prescribed lines, they would be kicked out of the party; reports from the voting lobby suggested that ministers had been physically manhandled to force them to vote, with even those within the party describing the scenes as “inexcusable” and an “absolute disgrace.” With the dysfunctional state of the party in full view, Truss’s time as leader was clearly up.
当天早时，保守党党魁通知各部长，称这次投票是对政府的信任动议。这意味着，如果各部长拒绝投出内定的选项，就会被开除出党。来自投票游说团体的报告显示，部长们遭到了身体上的伤害，被迫作出内定投票，甚至连党内人士也称这种场面“不可原谅”、“无比耻辱”。随着保守党混乱失调状态的一览无遗，特拉斯的领袖生涯也显然画上了句点。
谁将是下一位接任者？
As Truss noted, they will be expediting the process this time around, with a new leader to be announced as soon as October 28. Conservative MPs will whittle the pool of candidates down to a final two, and the party’s membership will vote online in the coming week on the two candidates. Rushi Sunak has already emerged as a front-runner, while Penny Mordaunt, who reached the final round of voting in the leadership contest following Johnson’s resignation, is a close second.
特拉斯表示，保守党将加快本轮选举进程，尽快于10月28日前宣布新领袖。保守党将候选人数缩减至两名，并将在接下来的一周里通过线上投票确定两位候选人。目前最被看好的是前财政大臣里希·苏纳克（Rishi Sunak），其次是前国防大臣彭妮·莫当特（Penny Mordaunt），她曾在前首相约翰逊辞职后的当轮领导人选举中进入最后一轮竞争。
前财政大臣里希·苏纳克
前国防大臣彭妮·莫当特
However, a further spanner may still be thrown in the works, with reports emerging today that Johnson himself may be planning to announce he is running as a candidate; not only would it serve as a startling political comeback, but it would be likely to cause even greater turmoil given Johnson’s popularity with a loyal contingent of Conservative voters.
而又有报道宣称，前首相约翰逊（Boris Johnson）计划再度竞选，这给选举形势掺入了更多的不确定性因素。这不仅是一场令人错愕的政治回归，而且因为约翰逊受到保守党选民的热烈支持，这很有可能造成更大的政治混乱。
Many view the possibility of the Conservatives electing a fourth prime minister who has not been voted into office by a general election as not only immoral but fundamentally antidemocratic—especially given the remarkably brief length of Truss’s time in office.
许多人认为，这次保守党很可能再次通过跳过公投的方式选出党内第四任首相。不公投任命首相这种行为不仅违反道德，更是从根本上违反民主体制精神，而特拉斯极短的任期加剧了这种不道德、不民主的行为。
Either way, in as soon as a week, Britain will have a new prime minister—and even the most seasoned political pundits will admit that who that might be remains anyone’s guess.
无论如何，一周之内英国还将会有一名新首相上台。不过即使是最有经验的政治专家，目前也难以预测下一任首相会花落谁家。
重点词汇
tenure：n.任期;(尤指重要政治职务的)任职 the term during which some position is held
【例句】
He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.
pundit：n.行家;权威 someone who has been admitted to membership in a scholarly field
【例句】
The pundits disagree on the best way of dealing with the problem.
put/throw a spanner in the works：从中捣乱，打乱计划 to cause something to not go as planned
【例句】
We were ready to start the project when the bank threw a spanner in the works by denying the loan.
原文链接：
https://www.vogue.com/article/why-was-liz-truss-prime-minister-for-just-44-days
https://news.sky.com/story/liz-truss-to-resign-as-prime-minister-12723236
https://news.sky.com/story/who-could-replace-liz-truss-as-prime-minister-if-she-is-ousted-as-tory-leader-12722118
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/14/uk-pm-liz-truss-fires-finance-minister-kwasi-kwarteng.html
编译 | 郝喜桓 虞佳盟 侯倩 吾丽巴丽亚
排版 | 郝喜桓
