经济学人下载:白芝浩专栏--失去控制(1)

Britain
英国板块

Bagehot
白芝浩专栏

Losing his grip
失去控制

Boris Johnson’s poor management of the covid crisis is undermining his ability to govern
鲍里斯·约翰逊对新冠肺炎危机管理不善，正在削弱他的执政能力

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”，英国在一片混乱中脱离了欧洲汇率机制，这一事件摧毁了梅杰的首相职位，迫使英国进入了5年的痛苦窘境，这是由于保守党政府在一场又一场危机中跌跌撞撞。冠状病毒之祸同样威胁着鲍里斯·约翰逊。他拥有比约翰爵士更多的领先票数（87比23），更受保守党人的喜爱。但是新冠肺炎危机比企业风险管理事件要严重得多，而且更难摆脱。

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.”
约翰逊对这场危机的处理不力破坏了政府最重要的财富——权威感。政府可能已经失去了公众：自5月以来，“掌握局势”的评级一直是负面的。它也开始失去了自己的政党。保守党议员对政府政策有一连串的抱怨。他们尤其不喜欢在其他国家决定间隔距离1.5米或者更近时，英国坚持要求陌生人之间必须保持2米的距离，不喜欢对重新开学的学校进行反向追踪，不喜欢将那些从国外来的人隔离两周的决定，不喜欢取消虚拟投票，这迫使议员们站在一条长达一英里的“康加线”上投票，也不喜欢不规矩的街道，在两周的抗议和反对抗议中有多达40名警察受伤。约翰逊先生的惯常批评者问:你期望什么？有人说，其他人的心态“比沮丧还要糟糕”。“沮丧意味着你认为可能有出路。”

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.
约翰逊先生的权威，就像是他在大学里学习的罗马皇帝一样，建立在恐惧和魅力之上。他一再表现出残暴行为，令他的同僚们感到恐惧。他接任首相后驱逐了半数内阁成员，清除了21名投票反对该党派的议员，并派遣了赛义德·贾维德任财政大臣。他还利用自己相当大的政治魅力帮助赢得了12月冒险的大选。约翰逊的主要顾问多米尼克·卡明斯是这个充满恐惧和魅力的政权的核心人物，他挑起了各种各样的争斗，但也赢得了竞选天才的声誉。