2020年经济学人 白芝浩专栏--失去控制(3)（在线收听）

The new intake of Tory MPS is proving to be surprisingly hard to manage. A veteran observer of the party says that he expected rebellions from Europhile MPS and ageing Brexiteers who have been muscled aside by Mr Cummings. But what has surprised him is the rebelliousness of Tories from the largely working-class “red seats” who were carried to the House of Commons on Mr Johnson’s coattails. These neophytes have not been inculcated with loyalty to the party by several failed runs for seats; some are local figures who do not have an eye on national office. They are unlikely to become more obedient as the unemployment numbers mount.

事实证明，保守党议员的新成员令人惊讶地难以管理。保守党的一名资深观察员表示，他估计那些被卡明斯硬挤在一边的亲欧洲议员和老脱欧派人士会出现叛乱。但令他吃惊的是，保守党人的反叛正来自那些在约翰逊先生的提携下，从工人阶级为主的“红色席位”被带到下议院的人士。这些新人并没有因为几次竞选失败而被灌输对党的忠诚；有些人是当地的人物，他们对国家公职不感兴趣。随着失业人数的增加，他们不太可能变得更加顺从

All this points to a future in which the Conservative Party stumbles from crisis to crisis. Tory rebellions will become part of the political landscape, just as they were under Theresa May. Climb-downs and u-turns will become routine. On June 16th the government reversed its opposition to providing poor children with free school meal vouchers over the summer in the face of a campaign mounted by Marcus Rashford, a 22-year-old footballer. With the exception of Brexit, on which it is likely to remain adamantine, Downing Street may even reverse itself on some big questions. Mr Johnson’s support for Huawei is beginning to soften under pressure from the newly formed China Research Group.

所有这些都预示着保守党在一场又一场危机中跌跌撞撞的未来。保守党的反叛将成为政治版图的一部分，就像特雷莎·梅执政时期一样。爬坡和掉头将成为惯例。6月16日，面对22岁的足球运动员马库斯·拉什福德发起的一场运动，政府改变了在夏季为贫困儿童提供免费学校餐券的反对意见。唐宁街除了很可能在英国脱欧这一问题上保持坚定立场以外，它甚至可能在一些重大问题上改变立场。在新成立的中国研究集团的压力下，约翰逊对华为的支持开始减弱。

For a while it looked as if the new government had put an end to the era of political chaos that began four years ago with the referendum and consumed Theresa May’s premiership. Now, thanks to a pandemic that not even the most Eurosceptic MP can blame on the EU, another era of chaos has been unleashed and another Tory prime minister is condemned to years of agony.

一段时间以来，新政府似乎结束了四年前公投开始的政治混乱时代，并摧毁了特雷莎·梅的首相职位。现在，由于这场连欧洲统一怀疑论者的国会议员都不能将责任归咎于欧盟的疫情，又一个混乱的时代开启了，又一位保守党首相也被迫处于多年的痛苦中。