English 中文网 漫画网 爱新闻iNews 翻译论坛
中国网站品牌栏目(频道)
当前位置: Language Tips> Audio & Video> 新闻播报> Normal Speed News VOA常速

Britain's new Cabinet holds first meeting to tackle deficit

[ 2010-05-14 13:21]     字号 [] [] []  
免费订阅30天China Daily双语新闻手机报:移动用户编辑短信CD至106580009009

Britain's new Cabinet holds first meeting to tackle deficit

Britain's new Cabinet met for the first time after almost a week of political wrangling that has seen a coalition government take power.

Britain's new cabinet agreed to cut the pay of all ministers by five percent, the first step in what is to be a major effort to cut Britain's national deficit.

Analyst Kerry Brown, of the London-based research group Chatham House, compared Britain's deficit to that of Greece, where financial problems have led to massive cuts in spending and deep social unrest.

"The U.K. government has got to make some pretty savage cuts because its public debt is so high," said Brown. "I think it is over 12 percent of GDP. When you think Greece is, what, 13 and a half percent of GDP, it is a big deficit to be carrying, a big, big deficit."

Britain's deficit stands at almost $250 billion. The new government has promised an emergency budget within 50 days and has already said it will cut spending by nearly $10 billion this financial year.

New Prime Minister David Cameron says savings can be achieved by getting rid of inefficiencies.

Christian Schweiger from Britain's Durham University says Mr. Cameron also talks about devolving power to the people.

"The idea of rolling back the state is really at the heart of the Cameron agenda," Schweiger explained. "What it means, if you look at what they are really advocating, is basically withdrawing state funding from public services such as schools and police forces, and really just asking people to do more by themselves."

He says that plan is in line with traditional Conservative economic policy and at odds with the ideas of its predecessor, the Labor Party. Former prime minister Gordon Brown invested heavily in the public sector and believed the government had to keep spending in order to get Britain out of the recession.

Mr. Brown resigned earlier this week after a coalition was formed between the center-right Conservatives and the left-leaning Liberal Democrats.

The deal was made after a general election last week gave no party an overall majority in parliament.

Mark Wickham-Jones from the University of Bristol says the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats differ on a number of policies and the markets may not react well to that.

"They will be a little nervous about this," Wickham-Jones noted. "Markets do not like coalitions. They do not like uncertainty, so that may be resolved with this agreement, but they also do not like it if there are too many mouths to feed, too many demands on the table."

The markets reacted well when the new government said it would start tackling the deficit immediately.

Other expected legislation is a plan for a banking levy and a commission to investigate the possibility of separating retail and investment banking.

devolve something to/on/upon somebody: to give a duty, responsibility, power, etc. to somebody who has less authority than you (将职责、责任、权力等)移交,转交,委任

Related stories:

卡梅伦上任 布朗挥别唐宁街

英保守党领袖卡梅伦就任首相 发表讲话

Gordon Brown to resign 英国首相戈登·布朗辞职声明

Britain's third party mulls pact with Conservatives

(来源:VOA 编辑:陈丹妮)

 
中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883631联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
 

关注和订阅

人气排行

翻译服务

中国日报网翻译工作室

我们提供:媒体、文化、财经法律等专业领域的中英互译服务
电话:010-84883468
邮件:translate@chinadaily.com.cn