美国国家公共电台 NPR--Liz Truss announced her resignation as Britain's leader after 6 weeks in office

Liz Truss announced her resignation as Britain's leader after 6 weeks in office

Transcript¹

Nearly half a dozen figures in Britain's Conservative Party are seen as candidates for prime minister. Liz Truss is the fourth prime minister to resign since the Brexit vote of 2016.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

If you ever dreamed of being U.K. prime minister, now may be your chance.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

OK. The race may not be that wide open, but after Liz Truss lasted only six weeks, nobody knows who might take the job next. Half a dozen figures in the Conservative Party are seen as contenders. Most have some kind of baggage or downside, and they include Boris Johnson, the prime minister who resigned amid scandal before Truss did.

INSKEEP: NPR's Frank Langfitt has been watching events from London, and he joins us now.

Frank, good morning.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE²: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: OK. So I'm thinking of that old lyric³ from The Who, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Could that be literally⁴ true?

LANGFITT: It could be literally true. I mean, I'm still very skeptical⁵, and a lot of people are here, too. I want to say that none of these candidates have actually announced, but there's already building public support. And the reason that I think this is actually worth considering is right now Conservative Home - this is a good website that covers the Conservative Party - it has numbers now showing that Rishi Sunak - he's the former chancellor⁶ - he's at 35 support from lawmakers in the parliamentary party - 19 for Johnson, 11 for Penny Mordaunt, who is the former defense⁷ secretary. So over the weekend, we're going to see more and more people coming out to decide who they want - these are conservative lawmakers in the Parliament - and see by Monday who's getting the most support.

INSKEEP: OK. So you have to take Boris Johnson seriously, given that the same members of Parliament who pushed him out - at least some of them seem willing to push him back in or pull him back in. What is the argument against Boris Johnson?

LANGFITT: Well, I mean, how much time do you have? I mean, you got to remember, this is a guy that just last summer we were talking about a lot. He was basically tossed out by his own lawmakers because he lied about these government parties during the COVID lockdown. And people were really angry about that here. They recognize that in the past, Boris Johnson had lied about a lot of things. But this really, really bothered them.

And what we found if you - I was just looking at some old polls from just even a few months ago. Nationally, 75% find him untrustworthy. Two-thirds found him incompetent⁸ and wanted him to resign. So the idea - which you would hear from some conservative lawmakers - that he could actually - because in the past he's won elections - could help the Tory Party, the conservatives, out of the mess that they're in right now - for a lot of people, that just seems extremely unlikely.

INSKEEP: Now, you did mention some other names earlier when you talked about that conservative site...

LANGFITT: Yeah.

INSKEEP: ...That was tracking members of Parliament. Who are some of the other contenders?

LANGFITT: Yeah. So I think the person to watch right now is definitely Rishi Sunak. He's at the top. And he came in second over the summer, lost to Liz Truss. He is the former chancellor of the exchequer⁹. And that's important because the major problem that this country right now faces is economic and fiscal¹⁰. And he has that background. And his original budget was a much more fiscally¹¹ conservative budget.

Liz Truss went for unfunded tax cuts. And after the market attack, she actually ended up having to adopt the policies of the man, Rishi Sunak, that she beat. The other person, Penny Mordaunt, is very popular also among the Tory faithful out in the countryside, and they're the ones who could ultimately have the decision here.

INSKEEP: So when you talk about ultimately having the decision - the Conservative Party in recent years has had this system where the members of Parliament, who would normally choose the Prime Minister, don't make the final decision. They leave it to party hard-liners out in the countryside. Are they really going to go through that again?

LANGFITT: They could. The only way that that would change is there's now about a - you have to have a hundred people in the Parliament to support you. And if only one person makes that, then that person would become head of the party and prime minister of the United Kingdom.

INSKEEP: So if someone is overwhelmingly supported among members of Parliament, it goes no farther.

LANGFITT: And there's certainly a lot of hope that that will happen because the last two prime ministers didn't work out too well.

INSKEEP: NPR's Frank Langfitt. Thanks so much.

LANGFITT: Great to talk, Steve.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 lyric   

n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的

参考例句：

• This is a good example of Shelley's lyric poetry.这首诗是雪莱抒情诗的范例。
• His earlier work announced a lyric talent of the first order.他的早期作品显露了一流的抒情才华。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

6 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 incompetent   

adj.无能力的，不能胜任的

参考例句：

• He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
• He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。

9 exchequer   

n.财政部；国库

参考例句：

• In Britain the Chancellor of the Exchequer deals with taxes and government spending.英国的财政大臣负责税务和政府的开支。
• This resulted in a considerable loss to the exchequer.这使国库遭受了重大损失。

10 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

11 fiscally   

在国库方面，财政上，在国库岁入方面

参考例句：

• Nor will fiscally stretched governments pump more money into the political equivalent of a leper colony. 财政吃紧的政府也不愿将更多的钱投入这个避之唯恐不及的政治瘟疫区。
• We are more fiscally constrained, which forces us to work smarter and more efficiently. 与F-15相比我们资金上的限制更大了，美女类小游戏，这迫使我们更为精心和有效地工作。