英国新闻听力 英国新首相上台

After days of political horse-trading the UK finally has a new government and a new Prime Minister, following the resignation of Labour's Gordon Brown on Tuesday evening.

Since last Thursday's general election resulted in a hung parliament, a situation in which none of the political parties has an overall majority, British politicians have been attempting to form a coalition¹ government.

Such a government is comparatively rare in the UK. Indeed this is the first coalition since the Second World War.

So how did it happen?

Last week's general election saw the public vote split amongst the political parties in such a way that no party achieved the 326 seats required to gain a majority and therefore form a government.

This situation is known as a hung parliament, and means that two or more of the opposing parties have to unite in order to have more than 326 seats between them.

The Conservative party won 306 seats while Labour and the Liberal Democrats² got 258 and 57 seats respectively.

This meant that the Liberal Democrats effectively became 'kingmakers', with the power to choose which rival to form a coalition with.

Both Labour and the Conservatives attempted to woo the Lib Dems with various offers over the last few days, but in the end Gordon Brown resigned both as Prime Minster and as Labour leader, paving the way for the new government.

Many have seen the Lib Dems as the real winners in this situation, given the fact that their leader Nick Clegg has been appointed Deputy Prime Minister and four others have received ministerial appointments.

However, it remains³ to be seen how effectively David Cameron's Conservatives can work with their new partners.

经过为期几天的政治交易，执政党工党领袖布朗在周二晚上辞职，英国新政府和新首相终于出炉。

周四的大选表明将产生悬空议会，也就是无党派占绝大多数的议会。自那时起，英国政治家一直试图组成联合政府。

这样的联合政府在英国是相对来说比较少见的。实际上，这是自第二次世界大战以来首个联合政府。

那么，为什么会产生这种议会呢？

上周的大选显示，公众投票分散在不同的政治党派，没有任何党派获得了组阁所需要的326个席位的大多数。

这种情况叫做无党派占绝对多数的议会，在这种情况下，两个或更多的竞争党派必须联合起来，以期超过326个席位。

保守党赢得了306个席位，而工党和自民党分别获得258和57个席位。

这意味着自民党将成为“拥立国王的人”，他们可以选择与哪个竞争党派联合。

在过去的几天，工党和保守党均试图求得自民党的赞同。但是最终，布朗辞去工党领袖和首相的职务，为新政府的出台铺平了道路。

许多人认为，在这种形式下，自民党是真正的胜利者。因为他们的领袖克莱格已经被任命为副首相，而其他四人则收到了部长级的任命。

然而，大卫·卡梅伦领导的保守党能够在多大的程度上与他们的搭档进行合作，还有待观察。

1 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。