经济学人下载:英国政治 时钟停摆

Politics
英国政治

Winding down
时钟停摆

Over a year before the general election, Parliament is already clocking off
大选后一年多，议会已像时钟一样停摆

PARLIAMENT feels different from usual. The lobbies and corridors are quieter. The queues in the canteens are shorter. Records of internet activity in the Palace of Westminster show that monthly visits to YouTube have overtaken those to Parliament's information pages. Visits to cricket websites are up, too. The division bells still ring in MPs' offices to announce votes and the wood-panelled committee rooms are still busy—but debates tend to be on independent (and sometimes eccentric) initiatives by MPs rather than on government bills. Each seems to be doing his own thing.
英国议会与往常大不一样。议会大厅和走廊比以往安静许多，在餐厅钱排队的人也变少了。议会大厦网络活动记录显示，YouTube的月访问量已经超过了议会信息网页。板球运动网站访问量也有所增长。议员办公室的分组表决铃依然在宣布着投票结果，镶木会议室里依然繁忙——然而，议会辩论与其说是关于政府债券，倒不如说是关于议员的自主（有时略显诡异）积极性。大家似乎各行其是。

Britain's Parliament normally stands out for its raucous debates, its might and its bustle. Unlike America's Congress, it is not prone to long spells of deadlock; unlike France's National Assembly, it is not subordinate to a monarch-like president; unlike the German Bundestag, regional legislatures do not dilute its power. And not long ago it was a whirlwind of activity. In the 2010-12 session the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition passed 42 bills overhauling the national finances and most major public services.
英国议会一向以其激烈的辩论、威严的力量和热闹的场面而著称。英国议会不像美国国会那样长期僵持，也不像法国国民议会那样从属于一个君主式的总统，更不会像德国联邦议院那样使地区立法机关将其权利分流。不久以前，英国议会活动频繁。在2010-2012年间，保守党和自由民主党联合通过42项法案，大力整改了国家财政和大部分公共服务机构。

But last year's Queen's Speech introduced just 15 bills, several of them minor. With seven weeks left in the parliamentary year, MPs have passed only 801 pages of government legislation (excluding money-raising measures and bills mostly debated in the last session). Even in the unusually short 2012-13 session they managed more than twice as much. Thirteen months before the next general election, the legislative motor is spluttering.
但是去年的女王演讲仅仅引进了15项法案，其中一些都是小修小改。本届议会任期还有七周，但议员们仅仅通过了801页政府立法（除了筹款措施和上届议会主要讨论的法案）。即使是在2012-2013年较短的任期内，议员们通过的法案也比现在多出一倍。距离下届大选还有13个月， 而立法运动举步维艰。

Why? “They passed a hell of a lot of legislation in early sessions, much more so than Blair or Thatcher,” explains Peter Riddell of the Institute for Government. So the government soon ran out of policies that both sides of the coalition found acceptable. It is now stuck. Having fixed the parliamentary term at five years, it must sit out the remaining months.
这一切原因何在？这是因为“他们在早期的议会中已经通过许多立法法案，比布莱尔和撒切尔时期还要多，”政府研究院的彼得·里德尔（Peter Riddell）解释道。因此，政府很快就穷于政策，无法使联合议会的双方都满意。所以如今，立法进程受阻。议会将任期修改为5年，所以他们在剩下的几个月必须耐着性子坚持到底。

The slumber of all parliaments
麻木的议会

Amid the torpor, minds are turning to the election. “A year ago all the conversations were about policy; now it is positioning and campaigning,” observes one MP. Those with swing seats, particularly Lib Dems who need to overcome their party's poor polling, are using the quiet time to woo constituents. Some spend as little as a day a week in Westminster.
议会已经麻木，人们的想法渐渐向大选转移。一位议员观察到，“一年以前，大家都在谈论政策，如今，大家都在谈论定位和运动”。一些议员尤其是需要力克其正当惨淡的投票情况的自由民主党人，正需要利用这一麻木期来争取那些立场不坚定的选民。有些议员一周仅在议会大厦工作一天。

Other MPs are away from Parliament for different reasons. For those with comfortable majorities, foreign junkets and media careers beckon. “I've never had more time to write,”chuckles one. So occupied are some MPs with their second jobs that Andrew Lansley, the leader of the House of Commons, is said to have reminded them that their first duty is to their voters. Scottish MPs have a less cushy distraction: canvassing voters ahead of the referendum on independence, which will take place in September.
另一些议员因为不同原因离开了议会。对于舒适的大多数议员，国际旅行和媒体事业吸引着他们。一名议员笑道：“我从来没有这么多时间来写作。”一些其他有副业的议员也过着充实的日子，例如下议院领袖安德鲁·兰斯利（Andrew Lansley）。据说他已经提醒大家，他们最重要的任务就是对选民负责。而苏格兰议员们却并不轻松，他们还需要关注这一问题：在九月开始独立公投之前拉选票。

Those left in Westminster spend their time on three main things. One is scrutiny. Since 2010 select committees have been elected by MPs rather than by party bosses. That has enlivened them. They are busy holding the government to account and, in the case of the Consolidation Bills committee, tidying up outdated legislation. One recent victim was a series of 19th-century laws governing the railways in Imperial India. “The romantic in me was rather sad to see them go,” says Robert Buckland, one of its members.
留在议会大厦的议员们主要进行三项工作。一是选票复查工作。自2010年，特别委员会由议员选举，而不是党魁。这使得他们生机勃勃。特别委员会忙于令政府负责，至于合并法案委员会，他们正整理过时的立法法案。近期，一系列19世纪的印度帝国银行铁路法律遭到废除。特委会成员罗伯特·巴克兰德（Robert Buckland）称，“看着他们被废除，我很难过。”

Others pursue idiosyncratic political campaigns. Peter Bone, an outspoken Tory, is trying to rename the August Bank Holiday after Margaret Thatcher. Other campaigns concern bread-and-butter matters like household bills and consumer rights. Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP for Harlow, a blue-collar town in Essex, is especially prolific. His Additional Charges for Utility Bills Not Paid by Direct Debit (Limits) Bill awaits its second reading. In the lobbies and tearooms these campaigning MPs seek their colleagues' support for such private members' bills, Early Day Motions (short written declarations) and backbench debates.
其他议员追求特殊政治运动。心直口快的保守党议员彼得·伯恩（Peter Bone）继玛格丽特·撒切尔之后，正试图重新命名八月公共假日。其他运动关注民生问题，如家庭支出和消费者权利。罗伯特·阿尔丰（Robert Halfon）是埃塞克斯蓝领镇哈洛的保守党成员，他在这一运动中硕果累累。他提出的《不额外收取水电费由直接借记支付（限制）法案》正等着第二次阅读。在大厅和茶室里，这些运动的议员都就类似的私有法案、早一天运动以及后座议员辩论寻求同事们的支持，

Other parliamentarians are busy agitating within their parties. Pressure groups of MPs are becoming more vocal, and new ones like Renewal (a campaign for working-class Conservatism) and One Nation (a gang of young Labour MPs) have sprung up. Some of these publish reports and papers, others host guest speakers. “Every five minutes there is another bloody supper club,” groans one MP in a marginal seat. These gatherings mostly serve as networking opportunities. More troublingly, for party leaders, they are also perfect places for idle hands to make trouble: for leadership pretenders to peacock and for disgruntled MPs to plot and scheme. Tory backbenchers have taken to gathering signatures on letters grousing about government policy.
其他议员正忙于在其党派内鼓吹信息。议会施压小组变得更加有力，新的运动不断涌现，如“复兴”（一项为保守党工薪阶层而掀起的运动）和“单一民族党”（一群年轻的工党议员）。有些运动发布了报告和文件，有些则客串嘉宾主持人。一位在边缘席位的议员呻吟道：“每五分钟就有一场血雨腥风。”这些聚会主要是作为联系机会而存在的。更麻烦的是，对于党魁来说，这里也是一个闲杂人等闹事的好地方：对于假装领导人的人来说，是个炫耀的好地方，对于心存不满的议员来说，是个密谋和计划的好地方。保守党后座议员已经开始收集签名，抱怨政府政策。

The depth of Westminster's legislative lull may be unusual, but it is not entirely new. In the 1850s the Spectator, a news magazine, reported that Parliament was so quiet “you may hear a bill drop.” In the 18th century MPs could talk for as long as they liked—and often did—as their colleagues ate oranges and cracked nuts. Something for MPs to ponder, in between doing not very much.
议会大厦立法间歇的深度可能非同寻常，但也并非全新。19世纪50年代的《旁观者》杂志报道，议会安静得“听得到法案落地的声音”。18世纪，议员们可以想说多久说多久—事实上他们的确经常这样做—而他们的同事吃着橘子和坚果。有些东西需要议员思考，其中很多事情他们做得并不好。