British Vision - Issue 5 布莱尔首相四面楚歌

本期难点
1. throw in the towel: give up; admit defeat.
2. the LEA: Local Education Authority (UK)
3. swack: vt. [苏]重击; 鞭打; 猛掷
4. Tory: A member of a British political party, founded in 1689, that was the opposition¹ party to the Whigs and has been known as the Conservative Party since about 1832.
5. high-octane: High-powered; dynamic


Fighting on the right, questioning on the left, the candid² Tony Blair admitted today that he's battling on all fronts to get his way on public sector³ reform. At his last regular Downing Street press conference of the year, Mr. Blair told journalists he felt confident, and was enjoying the fight, but as well as reinvigorated Conservative Party, he is also facing a revolt of his own party over his education reforms. Our political editor Gary Gibbon takes a look at what the new year might bring for the prime minister.

Gary Gibbon: This was the prime minister's chance to say how he sees the coming year, to kill off any notion that he is flagging, oppressed by his critics, likely to throw in the towel, to persuade his audience that 2006 will not be the year his premiership ends.

Tony Blair: I feel a tremendous sense of confidence. I've never felt more confident. We should be confident. I feel very confident. I thought I 've never felt more confident...


Gary Gibbon: But is the prime minister confident that he can get his way, or confident he can keep his job? There're signs of Westminster that he won't necessarily be able to do both. Normally, reliable supporters of the government determined⁴ not to let prime minister have his way on education reforms. They sense the government's offering a compromise, perhaps tightening⁶ the rules on selection, but they're determined to make a stand against what they see as a drastic reform of local education authorities."

"You've got a te....for loosening the LEA's control over secondary schools and rethinking it."

Gary Gibbon: The rebels are demanding a rewrite of the bill that would tighten⁵ local government's grip on schools.

"...would it be worse passing an education bill that in some cases strengthened the LEA's control and largely left it unreformed?"

Tony Blair: It won't. No is the answer. If...if...if what it does, actually hobbles schools from moving forward in the way that they need to."

Clive Betts: I don't want to speculate on the end of the prime minister's premiership, because ..um.. you know..there..he has just won the... a thrid term...um.. as I say, the, there has been a great success in our education program so far in raising standards (but) and building new schools (but), but I just wish he would listen on this issue.

Gary Gibbon: In this week, the prime minister have to deal with public attacks from a man who says he just doesn't do that sort of thing.

"But when we do disagree. I don't wish you out and issue a press release or brief the newspapers."

Gary Gibbon: But that 's what he just did, swacking the prime minister where it hurts. He said he was critical and not totally convinced of Mr.Blair's cherished education plans.

Tony Blair: ...you know, in respect of John's comments on, on education, I doubt any of you are particularly surprised that was his concern,..um...and, you know he, he does this.."

Gary Gibbon: And Tony Blair is entering a new year in which the polls are moving in the wrong direction. An average of polls after the election showed Labor⁷ within an 8 point lead. This month Labor's down. The Tories for the first time in 12 years could be getting a sustained lead. Mr. Blair said Labor could come back, if it's stuck with public sector reform. He sensed David Cameron's conservatives wanted to paint Labor the party of the state, and that trap must be avoided.

Tony Blair: If there is an arguement that the Labor party has got to be careful of, it's this arguement that we are more interested in the state than we're in people.

George Osborne: Tony Blair is right to identify this is a problem for the Labor party. Uh, the only thing I'd say he has been prime minister for eight years and he's not done much about it, ur, the Labor government's solutions and also its public service reforms have tended to be top-down solutions, and of course there is this, other person in charge of the Labor party Golden Brown, who explicitly⁸ rules out..Um.. greater transfer of collective power to a community away from the state.

Gary Gibbon: Mr.Blair warned against high-octane sensational⁹ headlines predicting his imminent¹⁰ demise¹¹, but he knows he is entering a year that many in his own party hope will be the closing chapter of his leadership.

The prime minister also insisted he didn't want to add fuel to claims that CIA planes can, prisoners onboard, may have landed in Britain before moving to countries to practise torture. Last weekend, the US Secretary of state Colin Paul said that rendition is not new or unknown to my European friends. Well, I ask the prime minister, now that he knows, is he going to investigate the allegations?

Tony Blair: I, I have absolutely no evidence to suggest that anything illegal's been happening here at all, and I don't want to start ordering inquiries¹² into this stuff or the next thing well if I've got no evidence to show whether this's right or not, and honestly, you know, it's like all the stuff about camps in Europe or something, I don't know, I've never heard of such a thing, I can't tell you whether such a thing exists, because I don't know..

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 candid   

adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的

参考例句：

• I cannot but hope the candid reader will give some allowance for it.我只有希望公正的读者多少包涵一些。
• He is quite candid with his friends.他对朋友相当坦诚。

3 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

4 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

5 tighten   

v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧

参考例句：

• Turn the screw to the right to tighten it.向右转动螺钉把它拧紧。
• Some countries tighten monetary policy to avoid inflation.一些国家实行紧缩银根的货币政策，以避免通货膨胀。

6 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

7 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

8 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

9 sensational   

adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的

参考例句：

• Papers of this kind are full of sensational news reports.这类报纸满是耸人听闻的新闻报道。
• Their performance was sensational.他们的演出妙极了。

10 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

11 demise   

n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让

参考例句：

• He praised the union's aims but predicted its early demise.他赞扬协会的目标，但预期这一协会很快会消亡。
• The war brought about the industry's sudden demise.战争道致这个行业就这么突然垮了。

12 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》