英伦广角 Issue 128 布朗誓言起诉冰岛政府

It's 30 years since the so-called Cod¹ Wars. The relations between London and Reykjavik are almost as frosty now as they were then, with the prime minister using the most undiplomatic of language and threatening to sue the government of Iceland.

 

We believe that, and I think everybody at least home will agree that the Icelandic authorities are responsible for this. We'll do what we can, working with local authorities to help. And I think we, as the government, are doing the responsible thing. We are holding the Icelandic authorities responsible with demanding that the money be paid back to the local authorities. (Through Legal action?) And we are prepared to consider all forms of action including as we did, attempting to, and freezing assets.

 

The problem is that it's not only Iceland's banks that have crashed. Yesterday, the British government used anti-terror laws to freeze the assets of those banks. But now, the Icelandic government is in fact defaulting. "Totally unacceptable!", says Gordon Brown, threatening legal action something Iceland's prime minister is keen to avoid.

 

Legal action is something that is always available. That's one way of civilizing², excuse me, it's one way of setting disputes in a civilized³ manner, go to courts, but I don't know we're...we're hoping and planning to try to resolve this issue in good cooperation with the UK authorities.

 

More than a hundred local authorities placed large sums of money on deposit with Icelandic banks. The total amount is hundreds of millions and could be as much as a billion pounds. That money is needed to revive the goods and services run by local councils. The local authority leaders say they can't guarantee those goods and services unless they get their money back.

 

Until we've actually looked to the implications, for each local authority, the sum is very large and it will be a small amount in the total context of the budget; others, it will be a much greater impact. We still haven't assessed that fully⁴...

 

And then there are the police authorities, who also invested in Icelandic banks and now stands to lose the best part of 100 million pounds.

The government's now embroiled⁵ in a huge row with the governments of Iceland. But while ministers say they're doing what they can to help local councils retrieve⁶ those missing millions, they are also asking question what on earth you have been doing with tax payers' money. The councils reply "we invested it in banks that we thought were safe."
 
But safe? They were not. And Gordon Brown is making it crystal clear that he expects the government of Iceland to underwrite the debts of its banks and to pay up.

 

Glen Oglaza, Sky News.

 
 

1 cod   

n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗

参考例句：

• They salt down cod for winter use.他们腌鳕鱼留着冬天吃。
• Cod are found in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.北大西洋和北海有鳕鱼。

2 civilizing   

v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The girls in a class tend to have a civilizing influence on the boys. 班上的女生往往能让男生文雅起来。
• It exerts a civilizing influence on mankind. 这产生了教化人类的影响。 来自辞典例句

3 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

4 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

5 embroiled   

adj.卷入的；纠缠不清的

参考例句：

• He became embroiled in a dispute with his neighbours. 他与邻居们发生了争执。
• John and Peter were quarrelling, but Mary refused to get embroiled. 约翰和彼得在争吵，但玛丽不愿卷入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。