英國板塊
Bagehot
白芝浩專欄
Losing his grip
失去控制
Boris Johnson’s poor management of the covid crisis is undermining his ability to govern
鮑里斯·約翰遜對新冠肺炎危機管理不善，正在削弱他的執(zhí)政能力
Britain’s chaotic departure from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism on “Black Wednesday” in 1992 destroyed John Major’s premiership and condemned the country to five years of agony, as the Tory government stumbled from crisis to crisis. The coronavirus debacle now threatens to do the same to Boris Johnson. He has a bigger majority than Sir John (87 compared with 23) and is more loved by Tories. But the corona crisis is much bigger than the ERM episode and will be harder to escape from.
1992年的“黑色星期三”，英國在一片混亂中脫離了歐洲匯率機制，這一事件摧毀了梅杰的首相職位，迫使英國進入了5年的痛苦窘境，這是由于保守黨政府在一場又一場危機中跌跌撞撞。冠狀病毒之禍同樣威脅著鮑里斯·約翰遜。他擁有比約翰爵士更多的領(lǐng)先票數(shù)（87比23），更受保守黨人的喜愛。但是新冠肺炎危機比企業(yè)風險管理事件要嚴重得多，而且更難擺脫。
Mr Johnson’s poor handling of the crisis has wrecked the government’s most important asset, its sense of authority. The government may already have lost the public: ratings for “being in charge of the situation” have been negative since May. It is beginning to lose its own party, too. Tory MPS have a litany of complaints about government policies. They especially dislike the insistence that strangers must stay 2m apart when other countries have settled on 1.5m or less, the back-tracking over reopening schools, the decision to quarantine those arriving from abroad for a fortnight, the abolition of virtual voting, which forces MPS to stand in a milelong “conga line” to cast their votes, and the unruly streets, with up to 40 police officers injured in a fortnight of protests and counter-protests. Habitual critics of Mr Johnson ask: what did you expect? Others are “worse than despondent”, says one. “Despondent implies that you think that there might be a way out.”
約翰遜對這場危機的處理不力破壞了政府最重要的財富——權(quán)威感。政府可能已經(jīng)失去了公眾：自5月以來，“掌握局勢”的評級一直是負面的。它也開始失去了自己的政黨。保守黨議員對政府政策有一連串的抱怨。他們尤其不喜歡在其他國家決定間隔距離1.5米或者更近時，英國堅持要求陌生人之間必須保持2米的距離，不喜歡對重新開學的學校進行反向追蹤，不喜歡將那些從國外來的人隔離兩周的決定，不喜歡取消虛擬投票，這迫使議員們站在一條長達一英里的“康加線”上投票，也不喜歡不規(guī)矩的街道，在兩周的抗議和反對抗議中有多達40名警察受傷。約翰遜先生的慣常批評者問:你期望什么？有人說，其他人的心態(tài)“比沮喪還要糟糕”。“沮喪意味著你認為可能有出路?！?/div>
Mr Johnson’s authority, like that of the Roman emperors he studied at university, rested on fear and charisma. He struck fear into his colleagues by repeated shows of brutality, expelling half the Cabinet when he took over as prime minister, purging 21 MPS who voted against the party and dispatching his chancellor, Sajid Javid. He also used his considerable political charisma to help win an audacious general election in December. Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s key adviser, was central to this regime of fear and charisma, picking fights with all and sundry but also earning a reputation as a campaigning genius.
約翰遜先生的權(quán)威，就像是他在大學里學習的羅馬皇帝一樣，建立在恐懼和魅力之上。他一再表現(xiàn)出殘暴行為，令他的同僚們感到恐懼。他接任首相后驅(qū)逐了半數(shù)內(nèi)閣成員，清除了21名投票反對該黨派的議員，并派遣了賽義德·賈維德任財政大臣。他還利用自己相當大的政治魅力幫助贏得了12月冒險的大選。約翰遜的主要顧問多米尼克·卡明斯是這個充滿恐懼和魅力的政權(quán)的核心人物，他挑起了各種各樣的爭斗，但也贏得了競選天才的聲譽。
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