在1938年出版的小说《布莱顿硬糖》(Brighton Rock)中，格雷厄姆?格林(Graham Greene)试图在无情的清算旧怨的背景下回答是与非的重大问题。该书是尼克?蒂莫西(Nick Timothy)的最爱，如今他肩负着翻开英国政治的新一页、告别一波厮杀的重任。

　　As joint chief of staff to Theresa May, the lavishly bearded Mr Timothy, 36, has emerged as the power behind the throne, or at least one of the most influential voices in front of it. When the prime minister abruptly paused French-Chinese plans to build a nuclear plant at Hinkley Point, her thinking was traced back to a blog that he had written nine months earlier, warning of China’s security threat.

　　作为英国首相特里萨?梅(Theresa May)的联席幕僚长，36岁、满脸络腮胡的蒂莫西已崛起为权力背后的力量，或者至少是权力前面最有影响力的声音之一。当梅突然宣布暂停法中合建的欣克利角核电项目时，她的思路可以追溯至蒂莫西9个月前撰写的一篇警告中国安全威胁的博文。

　　Similarly, Mrs May’s new enthusiasm for industrial strategy and scepticism of foreign takeovers align neatly with his long-held views. Her few wide-ranging speeches have been mostly written by him. “It’s difficult to know where the overlap starts and stops,” says one friend.

　　同样，梅对产业战略的新热情以及对外资收购的怀疑态度，也与蒂莫西的长期观点不谋而合。梅为数不多的几次长篇演说大都由蒂莫西起草。一位朋友表示：“很难知道他们的交集在什么地方，或者有多大。”

　　Mr Timothy’s writings are being pored over for clues as to the prime minister’s agenda. He has been enthusiastic about faith schools, hostile to green taxes, and open to a deal with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. He has also proposed a “blue collar” Toryism that marks a clear break with the consensual conservatism of Mrs May’s predecessor David Cameron. “We need to keep asking ourselves what, in 2016, does the Conservative party offer a working-class kid from Brixton, Birmingham, Bolton or Bradford?” he wrote in March.

　　外界为了找寻关于首相议程的线索，正在仔细研读蒂莫西的文章。他对教会学校怀有热情，他反对征收环境税，但对与叙利亚的巴沙尔?阿萨德(Bashar al-Assad)达成协议持开放态度。他还提出了“蓝领阶层”保守主义，这标志着与前首相戴维?卡梅伦(David Cameron)的共识型保守主义分道扬镳。他在3月写道：“我们必须不断扪心自问，2016年保守党能为来自布里克斯顿、伯明翰、博尔顿或是布拉德福德的工人阶级子女提供什么？”

　　That reflects how, unlike Ed Llewellyn, the preceding chief of staff, Mr Timothy was not the beneficiary of an elite education. Born in Birmingham, he attended a publicly funded grammar school, and so, by his early teens, had a reason to vote Conservative. “I knew that if Labour won the [1992] election they’d have closed the school I’d just had the chance to go to,” he recalled.

　　这反映出蒂莫西并非精英教育的受益者，这一点与卡梅伦的幕僚长黎伟略(Ed Llewellyn)不同。蒂莫西生于伯明翰，他接受的是公立文法学校的教育，因此在十几岁的时候，他有理由支持保守党。“我知道，如果工党赢得（1992年）大选，他们会关闭我刚刚有机会进入的学校，”他回忆道。

　　His political hero is Joseph Chamberlain, a businessman, a can-do Liberal mayor of Birmingham in the 1870s and later a Conservative ally. Mr Timothy celebrates him for focusing the party on the working class. Others credit Benjamin Disraeli, the mercurial Tory prime minister whose obvious heir is Boris Johnson, not Mrs May.

　　他心目中的政治英雄是约瑟夫?张伯伦(Joseph Chamberlain)，后者是一名商人，也是1870年代伯明翰市敢作敢当的自由党市长，后来成为保守党的盟友。蒂莫西称赞他让自由党专注于工人阶级。其他人透露，他还受到19世纪变幻莫测的保守党首相本杰明?迪斯雷利(Benjamin Disraeli)的影响，后者显而易见的继承者是鲍里斯?约翰逊(Boris Johnson)，而不是梅。

　　Either way, Mr Timothy’s Birmingham background hints at an authenticity that Downing Street has sometimes lacked. He supports Aston Villa and Birmingham Bears, local football and cricket teams. Mr Cameron declared himself an Aston Villa supporter too, but once confused the club with West Ham, who play in the same colours.

　　不管怎样，蒂莫西的伯明翰背景暗示了一种接地气的真实感，而这个特点是唐宁街(Downing Street)有时缺乏的。他支持当地的足球队阿斯顿维拉(Aston Villa)和板球队伯明翰熊队(Birmingham Bears)。卡梅伦也宣称自己是阿斯顿维拉的拥趸，但他曾把该俱乐部与穿同样颜色队服的西汉姆联队(West Ham)弄混。

　　Nonetheless, Mr Timothy has spent his entire working life in Westminster’s orbit. After studying politics at Sheffield University, he worked as a researcher in Conservative central office and a staffer for Mrs May in opposition. His belief in industrial strategy is juxtaposed with his limited time in the private sector.

　　然而，蒂莫西的全部职业生涯都是在英国议会度过的。从谢菲尔德大学(Sheffield University)政治学专业毕业后，他成为保守党中央办公室的一名研究人员，后来成为处于反对党地位的梅的一名幕僚。在私营部门有限的经历与他对产业战略的信念似乎相符。

　　Following the 2010 election, he became a special adviser to Mrs May, then home secretary. By tightly controlling policy, he helped to ensure that there were fewer messes at the Home Office than in previous years.

　　在2010年大选后，他成为了时任内政大臣的梅的特别顾问。通过牢牢地控制政策，他帮助确保了内政部的混乱局面较往年有所减少。

　　Occasionally a certain brazenness — even vindictiveness — emanated from the top of the ministry occupied by Mrs May. For example, in 2011 Brodie Clark, then the head of the UK Border Agency, was accused of having relaxed checks at Heathrow without Mrs May’s permission. He found himself on the end of harsh briefings, apparently from the Home Office. He later claimed constructive dismissal, which ended in an expensive settlement. In another incident in 2014, Mr Timothy’s fellow adviser Fiona Hill resigned after confidential documents about alleged Islamic influence in Birmingham schools were leaked in order to embarrass Michael Gove, former education secretary.

　　由梅占据的内政部高层偶尔会散发出某种悍然、甚至报复心理的风气。例如，2011年，时任英国边境管理局(UK Border Agency)负责人的布罗迪?克拉克(Brodie Clark)被指责在未经梅的允许下擅自放松希思罗机场(Heathrow)的安检。他发现自己成了明显来自内政部的严厉简报的批评对象。之后他声称遭到推定解雇，最后以纳税人付出高昂代价的和解方式了结。在2014年的另一次事件中，为了让前教育大臣迈克尔?戈夫(Michael Gove)难堪，有人泄露了有关伊斯兰教据称影响伯明翰学校的机密文件，之后与蒂莫西同为顾问的菲奥娜?希尔(Fiona Hill)辞职。

　　Eventually Mr Timothy’s luck ran out too. He had defended Mrs May’s turf against the incursions of Downing Street, occasionally engaging in furious email exchanges. Then he harangued the Cabinet Office for guidance on whether he, as a publicly funded adviser, could campaign for the Conservatives. The row ended with him being excluded from the party’s list of candidates in the 2015 general election, and ultimately leaving the government. His alienation from Mr Cameron’s clique was complete.

　　最终蒂莫西的运气也耗尽了。他维护梅的地盘，抵御唐宁街的入侵，偶尔投入满腔愤怒的邮件交涉。之后，由于内阁办公室(Cabinet Office)提问他作为一名公共资金资助的顾问是否可以代表保守党参加竞选，他忍不住作出了长篇回击。这场争吵最终使他被排除在保守党2015年大选候选人名单以外，他最终离开政府。从此他与卡梅伦的小圈子彻底分道扬镳。

　　Mr Timothy, who is engaged to Nike Trost, an official at the Financial Conduct Authority, spent the next 12 months promoting state-funded independent free schools. During the EU referendum, he played his cards cleverly, backing Brexit while criticising the Leave campaign. When Mr Cameron resigned, he regrouped with Mrs May and Ms Hill.

　　在接下来的12个月里，与英国金融市场行为监管局(FCA)官员奈克?特罗斯特(Nike Trost)订婚的蒂莫西致力于推动政府资助的自主学校。在退欧公投期间，他巧妙出牌：支持英国退欧，同时批评退欧阵营。卡梅伦辞职后，他与梅和希尔再度联手。

　　The role of chief of staff was imported from the US by Tony Blair. It offers the hope of asserting the prime minister’s power over ministers and Whitehall. “It is not the job of the chief of staff to tell the prime minister why something can’t be done,” recalled Jonathan Powell, the first person to hold the position. “He has a whole civil service to do that.”

　　幕僚长这一职位是托尼?布莱尔(Tony Blair)从美国引入英国的。这一角色承载着维护首相对部长级官员和白厅(Whitehall)权威的希望。“向首相解释某件事为什么做不到，这不是幕僚长的职责，”英国首位幕僚长乔纳森?鲍威尔(Jonathan Powell)回忆道，“他有整个公务员团队作那个解释。”

　　Mrs May has sacked most of the heavyweight ministers who might defy her. Even so, people familiar with Mr Timothy wonder if he and Ms Hill, the joint chief of staff, will be able to have the tight grip on decisions that they enjoyed at the Home Office. He has the ideas, but Downing Street is a chaotic world. As Mr Powell wrote: “My rule of thumb was that six simultaneous crises were manageable but the seventh would usually prove too much.”

　　梅炒掉了绝大多数可能不听话的重量级大臣。即便如此，熟悉蒂莫西的人不禁猜测，他和另一位联席幕僚长希尔能否牢牢掌握他们曾在内政部享有的决策权。他有想法，但是唐宁街是一个混乱的地方。鲍威尔曾经写道：“我的经验法则是，6场同时发生的危机尚属可控，但是第7场危机往往会让人挡不住。”