布莱尔首相演讲:The Budget

LAUNCH OF ONE - A NEW CONTRACT WITH THE PEOPLE

The image that many people have of the average DSS office can be pretty grim. They think of barriers in front of you, a bureaucratic¹ system, grubby offices. Now imagine what it is like for a disabled person or a lone² mother struggling through that system trying to get back to work. Too often in the past, people have felt like being treated, not as individuals with potential, but as statistics being processed. I want all that to change. If we are going to reform our welfare system, we have to make it about offering opportunities to succeed not reinforcing a sense of failure.

This week, we took the next big steps in welfare reform - radically³ altering the way we deal with benefits. We are creating a brand new service that is focussed on work with personal advisors⁵ for every claimant, tailoring support to individual need. Benefits, housing, work - all dealt with under one roof. Job vacancies⁶ on the Internet accessed at the touch of a button.

The agency will help build on the success of the New Deal. More than 200,000 young people have jobs as a result of the New Deal. Long-term youth unemployment has been halved⁷ and according to an independent evaluation⁸ the New Deal, has actually paid for itself because we're getting people off benefit. They're in work. They're paying taxes to the revenue and therefore we're all better off.

I believe this new agency, which we've called ONE because it offers a one stop service, will be able to help those who are finding it hardest to return to work, and that includes those who can't read and write properly. One of the most worrying statistics from our research is that four out of ten people on the New Deal couldn't even read the instructions on a medicine bottle. It's no surprise that those same people find it hard to get a job.

I want the new agency therefore to offer a new service that builds on what we have learned from the New Deal. It gives help with reading and writing for those that need it on site or at a college. It gives them a personal advisor⁴ who is going specifically to deal with their personal problems and how we get them back to work. If we offer real opportunities, then I believe we are entitled to ask for responsibility in return. That way we all benefit. The job seeker and the taxpayer⁹. And that is why we have made benefits dependent on attending an interview. Interviews are there to offer help, but people have got to take them up. That's only fair. We are not forcing people to take jobs, but we are saying if you want the benefit at least you've got to show up with the responsibility to take part in an interview and see what work there is available for you.

This is just not about a new policy. It's about a new ethos. It's about offering a real service to people at a time of great anxiety and insecurity. But it is also about giving everyone a chance to make the most of their own potential. About giving everyone a chance to share in the rising prosperity of our nation.

Before our election, we issued a ten-point contract with the people. The first line of it was that we wanted to spend less on social and economic failure so we could spend more on investing in the future.

Today for the first time, the proportion of national income that we are spending on social security is going down, whereas the proportion of national income we are spending on education is going up. And that surely is the right priority. For this Parliament we will have a real terms rise of one percent in social security, when in respect of the health service and education is far more than that. And that one percent extra real terms spending on social security is in areas like child benefit, pensions, Working Families Tax Credit, where we are deliberately¹⁰ spending the money. So we are beginning through welfare reform, through a really concerted process, to take people off welfare and into work, to change round the dynamics¹¹ of spending and investment in our country for the future.

Last week in Scotland, I met a young woman who just got a job through the New Deal. There was nothing more exciting for her or more gratifying than to know how much opportunity and possibility had opened up in her life. I want her experience to be the experience of many many more people. In today's world we can offer people the opportunity to work. It will often not be the same job for all their lives. They will have to change jobs. They will have to learn new ways of working. They will have constantly to train and reskill throughout their working lives. The role of the State today is to help them to do that. In return, people have got a responsibility to try and take the chances that are available to them. But if we can build that into a new ethos, a new sense of a deal or bargain between the citizens in society where we provide opportunity and demand responsibility in return, then we will have improved not just our economy prospects¹²; We'll have improved the quality of our civic¹³ society as well.

1 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

2 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

3 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

4 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

5 advisors   

n.顾问，劝告者( advisor的名词复数 )；（指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• The governors felt that they were being strung along by their advisors. 地方长官感到他们一直在受顾问们的愚弄。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• We will consult together with advisors about her education. 我们将一起和专家商议她的教育事宜。 来自互联网

6 vacancies   

n.空房间( vacancy的名词复数 )；空虚；空白；空缺

参考例句：

• job vacancies 职位空缺
• The sign outside the motel said \"No Vacancies\". 汽车旅馆外的招牌显示“客满”。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 halved   

v.把…分成两半( halve的过去式和过去分词 )；把…减半；对分；平摊

参考例句：

• The shares have halved in value . 股价已经跌了一半。
• Overall operating profits halved to $24 million. 总的营业利润减少了一半，降至2，400 万元。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

9 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

10 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

11 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

12 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

13 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。