The love-in 我们结婚吧！

LONG-AWAITED events came to pass this week; and when they did, as in a modernist play or a spooky dream, they happened twice, with subtle variations. Twice Gordon Brown resigned: once in an apparent bid to keep his party in office, then in acknowledgment that its time was up. And twice David Cameron posed in front of the famous front door of his new home with a spouse: first, his marital one, Samantha; then with his new political partner, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats and now, amazingly, deputy prime minister.
本周，人们翘首以盼的事情终于发生了，而且发生了两次，像极了现代主义戏剧或是恶梦中常出现的情景。两次之间只有略微的不同。布朗两次辞职：一次显然是为了保住工党政权而牺牲自己（译者注：5月10日，布朗宣布辞去工党领导人的职务。），而第二次则宣告了工党执政时代的结束。卡梅伦两次携手其伴侣在新家赫赫有名的前门前亮相：第一次，是跟他的妻子萨曼塔；第二次则是跟他的新政治伙伴克莱格。克莱格这位自民党领袖现在竟得任副首相一职，实在令人称奇。

Among the commentariat, the world-weary view of Britain’s new coalition government is that it cannot last. Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are too hostile to each other; the economic and fiscal circumstances are too fissiparous; citing irreconcilable differences, one party will jilt the other sooner rather than later. Perhaps. But one reason to doubt the glum view is that Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron make a startlingly lovely couple.
有部分媒体悲观地认为，英国的新联合政府无法长久。保守党和自民党积怨太深；经济和财政状况摇摇欲坠；无法调解的分歧很快就会使两党分道扬镳。不是没这个可能。但是，值得使人打消这种消极念头的是，克莱格和卡梅伦其实惊人地登对。

Most obviously, and to an extent that must rile some class-warrior Labourites, they have similar backgrounds and biographies. Both are expensively educated sons of the financier classes, who have spent most of their adult lives in one kind of politics or another (though Mr Clegg, with his European ancestry and Spanish wife, is much more cosmopolitan than Mr Cameron). Both are 43, tallish and, as Martin Amis writes of a certain kind of well-bred Englishman, “pointlessly handsome”.
尤为惹眼的是，二人有着相似的背景和人生经历——这肯定会在某种程度上惹恼一些工党的“阶级斗士”。他们都是金融家的儿子，在昂贵的学府受过教育。他们的父辈都将大半人生付之政坛（不过，克莱格有欧洲大陆血统，妻子也是西班牙人，因此比卡梅伦更具有国际性视角。）他们都年仅43，高大挺拔，而且正如马丁•埃米斯笔下的高贵的英国绅士，“虽然没什么大不了的，但是他们的确都很英俊”。

More important than that overlap, perhaps, both are well-adjusted human beings. You search in vain on both men’s shoulders for the chips that typically burden and motivate politicians. Both have strong marriages and beloved children. An even temperament is an asset in any leader; in such a fragile alliance, the shared congeniality may be vital.
更为重要的是，二人都有很高的情智。在他们身上你看不到零星半点政客典型的怨恨不满。他们都忠于婚姻，疼爱孩子。温和的性情对任何领袖来说都是一大资本；二人都平易近人，这对于如此脆弱的联合来说，可谓至关重要。

Then there are the similarities of their political situations. Each has tried to reorient his party—and drag it towards the other’s. Mr Clegg has made the Lib Dems more liberal, or at least more realistic, in economic matters. Mr Cameron has striven, if with frequent blips, to make the Tories more socially liberal. The new prime minister and his deputy probably agree with each other at least as much as they do with many in their own parties (on the unreconstructed Tory right, in Mr Cameron’s case, and the Lib Dem left in Mr Clegg’s). Both will thus be sensitive to the delicacies and risks of the other’s internal party management.
此外，他们的政治处境也有不少相似之处。二人都试图调整各自政党的方向，并试图向对方靠拢。克莱格使自民党人在经济事务上变得更加自由放任，至少更加务实了。卡梅伦则努力使保守党人在社会问题上更加自由开放——虽然他的努力断断续续，但是仍体现了这一总体趋势。这位新首相和他的副首相相互之间的认同并不比他们从很多本党同仁那里获得的少（卡梅伦受到保守党内顽固不化的右翼势力的抗争，克莱格则要面对自民党中左派分子的反对）。因此，二人都能敏锐地察觉对方管理党内事务所面对的棘手之处和诸多风险。

The two men have something else in common, which may perhaps derive from their ego-nurturing backgrounds. Both give the strong impression of not being in politics merely to survive or slither to the top. Rather, both have always seemed determined to do something big—buoyed by the innate confidence that they can, and also by a sense that they can always bugger off and do something else if they fail. 更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/
二人还有一点别的相似之处。或许是因为高贵的出身使他们傲气凛然，从他们身上我们可以明显感受到，他们从政不单单是为了苟延残喘或是踉踉跄跄地登顶政坛，而似乎是决意干一番大事业——支撑着他们的不仅是与生俱来的自信，他们也深知，即使失败，他们总可以拍拍屁股走人，找点别的事做。

And they have done something big. Mr Cameron has long avowed an admiration for Disraeli. That reverence has generally been seen to refer to his Victorian predecessor’s “one nation” model of Conservatism. But this week, Mr Cameron has also emulated some of Disraeli’s strategic daring. Just as Disraeli seized the policy of voting reform for the Tories, Mr Cameron has this week hijacked the cause of “new politics” that had belonged to his opponents—embracing the logic of a hung parliament, an electoral outcome he recently regarded as calamitous, and yielding on reform of a constitution he had previously defended. He once seemed bold in style and speechmaking, but only timid and incremental in policymaking. Not any more.
他们也的确做成了件大事。卡梅伦一直对迪斯雷利仰慕不已。外界通常认为这敬仰之情源自这位维多利亚时代的保守党领袖提出的保守主义的“一国模式”。但就在本周，卡梅伦也效仿了迪斯雷利的有勇有谋。当年迪斯雷利为保守党争到了选举改革政策，而本周卡梅伦则借用其对手提出的“新政治”理念，表示欢迎“悬浮议会”（即“无多数议会”——译者注）的形式，而前不久他还认为这一选举结果是一场灾难。对于他一贯捍卫的政治体制，卡梅伦也作出了让步，表示同意改革。他曾经说话做事雷厉风行，但一到决策时就变得畏首畏尾，步步为营。但那已经是过去的事了。

Mr Clegg, meanwhile, has spent much of his time as leader of the Lib Dems being mocked and jeered by his adversaries. But, in small ways, he has always exhibited a bold streak, as in his willingness to criticise Britain’s strategy in Afghanistan. Now he has eschewed the easy comforts of opposition; and he decided against a lesser deal with the Tories, in which the Lib Dems would have supported Mr Cameron only on key parliamentary votes—allowing them to claim that they were acting responsibly, while distancing themselves from unpopular measures. Mr Clegg has gambled that the rewards and opportunities of government will compensate for the anger his choice will provoke among some Lib Dem voters. He now holds a more senior office than any British Liberal since Lloyd George. (Given the need for cross-party agreement, as well as his oversight of political reform, Mr Clegg’s post seems unlikely to be the non-job some think it is.)
So Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg have done something very big indeed. Between them, they have re-imagined British politics.
而克莱格，作为自民党党魁，大部分时间都在对手的冷嘲热讽中度过。但是，在微小细节上，他的大胆果敢总是展露无遗，比如，他敢于批判英国对阿富汗的政策。当下，他不屑于反对党安逸享乐的作风；他拒绝与保守党签订一个次要协议，协议规定自民党人只能在关键议会投票中支持卡梅伦，这使他们可以宣称自己尽职尽责，而又可以远离不受欢迎的措施。克莱格决定赌上一把，希望跻身政府带来的荣誉与机遇将抚平他的选择在一些自民党选民中激起的愤怒。如今，他成为继劳埃德•乔治之后在政府担任职务最高的民主党派领袖。（新政府需要两党之间协调一致，加之克莱格又负责监管政治改革，因此他的职位不可能像有的人想的那样无足轻重。）可见，卡梅伦和克莱格确确实实干了翻大事。他们一同重新描绘了英国政治的蓝图。

Double or quits
锦上添花，还是玉石俱焚？
Of course, it may not last. The initial coalition agreement, published on May 12th, permits disagreement between the partners on issues such as Britain’s nuclear deterrent, nuclear energy and the tax treatment of marriage. Such differences may prove easier to manage in theory than in practice. Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron plan to fix the current parliamentary term (and future ones) at five years. As the doubters prophesy, their coalition could well fall apart long before then.
当然，这一联盟随时可能分崩离析。5月12日发表的初步联合协议，表示允许两党之间在英国核威慑、核能和对已婚者的税收制度等问题上保留分歧。要处理这些分歧，结果可能会是说起来容易，做起来难。克莱格和卡梅伦计划将本届及以后的国会任期固定为5年。而根据那些对联合政府怀有疑虑之人的预测，这一联盟很可能在那之前就瓦解了。

Still, at their serendipitously sunny press conference, in the garden of Number 10 on May 12th, the optimism was almost irresistible, and so (apologies) were the nuptial metaphors. Mr Cameron introduced “the new deputy prime minister” with the relish of a groom referring to his “wife” for the first time in his wedding speech. They laughed off their previous altercations and indiscretions. The pair reminisced about the moment they realised together that, rather than just cohabiting in Parliament, they ought to get properly hitched in a coalition. Because of their compatibility, their government may at least survive long enough for them to do a bit of good.
然而，5月12号，天气难得放晴，在唐宁街10号的花园里举行的新闻发布会上，乐观心态几乎势不可挡，把这场联盟称作姻缘的比喻也大热全场。卡梅伦介绍“新任副首相”时，乐得像一个在婚礼演讲中第一次提到“妻子”的新郎。他们对之前彼此的恶语相向和鲁莽轻率付之一笑。二人回忆说，当时他们一起恍悟，与其在国会各居一隅，倒不如结成联盟来得更合情合理。因为彼此的相互包容，他们的政府至少还可能得以维持一段时间，至少够他们做出一点贡献。