好英语网“英国最短命首相”：特拉斯为何黯然辞职
LONDON — The rapid political collapse of Liz Truss ended as she announced her resignation on Thursday, a little more than six weeks after she became Britain’s leader. Her agenda had floundered, her own party had turned on her and commentators widely speculated on whether she could outlast a head of lettuce. She couldn’t.
伦敦——丽兹·特拉斯周四宣布辞职，结束了她这场快速的政治崩溃，此时距离她成为英国领导人刚过六周。她的议程陷入困境，她自己的政党开始攻击她，评论员们纷纷在猜测她的首相生涯能否比一颗球生菜存活得更久。她输了。
She had pledged to shoulder through the turmoil despite widespread calls for her resignation. But minute by minute the heat on her grew until there was no path out.
她曾誓称要挺过这场动荡，即使人们普遍要求她辞职。但她身上的压力每一分钟都在增加，直到没有出路。
在丈夫休·奥利里的陪伴下，英国首相利兹·特拉斯周四宣布将辞职。
If you need to get caught up, here is a guide to the basics.
如果你有点不太了解情况，以下是一些基本信息。
Who is Liz Truss and how did she become prime minister?
丽兹·特拉斯是谁，她是如何成为首相的？
Ms. Truss was anointed on Sept. 6 to replace Boris Johnson, who was elected by voters in 2019 but who flamed out in spectacular fashion after a series of scandals, forcing him to step down in July.
9月6日，特拉斯被任命接替鲍里斯·约翰逊。后者于2019年通过民选获任，但在一系列丑闻之后以惊人的方式坠落，被迫在7月下台。
The general public did not elect Ms. Truss — instead, she won a leadership contest among members of her Conservative Party. To replace Mr. Johnson, the party’s members of Parliament narrowed a field of candidates to two, who were then put up to a vote by about 160,000 dues-paying party members. (They’re an unrepresentative group of the nation’s 67 million residents, far more likely to be male, older, middle-class and white.)
特拉斯并非民选，而是保守党内部的党魁之争中胜出。为了替换约翰逊，该党的议员将候选人范围缩小到两名，然后由大约16万名缴纳党费的党员进行投票。（在全国6700万居民中，他们是一个不具代表性的群体，其中大部分是男性、老年人、中产阶级和白人。）
Ms. Truss, 47, had been Mr. Johnson’s hawkish foreign secretary, a free-market champion and eventual supporter of Brexit (after she changed her mind), winning over the right flank of the party despite her more moderate past. (Before joining the Conservative Party, she was a member of the centrist Liberal Democrats when she was a student at Oxford University.)
47岁的特拉斯曾是约翰逊政府的鹰派外交大臣、自由市场的拥护者，并最终（在改变主意后）成了英国脱欧的支持者。尽管有作为温和派的历史，她还是争取到了保守党右翼的支持。（在加入保守党之前，她在牛津大学读书时是中间派自由民主党成员。）
How did it start to come undone?
这一切是如何崩溃的？
She was never going to have it easy. As Ms. Truss entered office, the nation was staring down a calamitous economic picture, highlighted by energy bills that were predicted to jump 80 percent in October and jump again in January. It threatened to send millions of Britons, already reeling from inflation and other challenges, spiraling into destitution, unable to heat or power their homes.
她的首相生涯本来就不可能轻松。上任之时，这个国家正面临着灾难性的经济形势，尤其突出的是能源价格预计在10月份将上涨80%，明年1月将再次上涨。这使本就因通货膨胀和其他挑战而步履艰难的数百万英国人面临陷入贫困、无法维持家宅供暖或供电的威胁。
So it was unwelcome news when her signature economic plans immediately made things worse.
因此，当她的标志性经济计划使情况立即恶化时，民众很难接受。
Her announced plans for tax cuts, deregulation and borrowing so alarmed global investors that the value of the British pound sank to a record low against the U.S. dollar. The Bank of England stepped in to prop up government bonds, an extraordinary intervention to calm the markets.
她宣布的减税、去监管和借贷计划惊动了全球投资者，以至于英镑兑美元汇率跌至历史新低。英格兰银行介入以支撑政府债券，这是一项非同寻常的干预措施，旨在平息市场。
The response left no doubt that her free-market ambitions were untenable. In a humiliating reversal, she was forced to reverse virtually all of the tax cuts this week, including a much-criticized one on high earners. She fired Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor of the Exchequer who was the architect of the plan and a close ally, and adopted economic policies favored by the opposition Labour party.
这些回应毫无疑问地表明她的自由市场雄心是站不住脚的。本周，她不得不取消几乎所有的减税措施，包括一项备受批评的针对高收入者的减税，这是耻辱性的挫败。她解雇了该计划的设计者、她的亲密盟友、财政大臣夸西·克瓦滕，并转向反对党工党支持的经济政策。
“You cannot engage in the sort of U-turn that she has engaged in and retain your political credibility,” said Jon Tonge, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool.
利物浦大学政治学教授乔恩·汤格说：“像她这样的180度大转弯，一旦转了你的政治信誉就完了。”
How did her tenure come under threat?
她的任期如何受到威胁？
Her concessions did little to mollify a growing rebellion from within her own party, which had the power to topple her in much the same way it toppled Mr. Johnson.
她的让步并没有平息她所在政党内部日益加剧的反对，政党有能力推翻她，就像推翻约翰逊一样。
The Conservatives — also known as Tories — had seen their popularity decline in public opinion polls after Mr. Johnson’s scandals, and their numbers cratered to staggering new lows as Ms. Truss stumbled. A Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll this week revealed the lowest approval rating it had ever recorded for a prime minister, with 70 percent disapproving of Ms. Truss, including 67 percent of Conservatives.
在约翰逊的丑闻之后，保守党在民意调查中的支持率下降，并随着特拉斯的过失跌至惊人的新低。本周雷德菲尔德和威尔顿策略公司的一项民意调查显示首相支持率创下历史新低，70%的人不认可特拉斯，在保守党内这一数字为67%。
If a general election were held today, 56 percent would vote for Labour while 20 percent would vote Conservative, the poll found.
民意调查发现，如果今天举行大选，56%的人会投给工党，而20%的人会投给保守党。
The Conservative Party’s discontent with Ms. Truss crescendoed in turn, and she was enveloped with a palpable sense of crisis. On Wednesday, it boiled into a frantic fight for her survival — “I’m a fighter and not a quitter,” she said while being grilled by members of Parliament.
保守党对特拉斯的不满也随之升级，一种明显的危机感包围着她。周三，这演变成了一场为了生存的疯狂斗争——“我是一个斗士，不是一个轻易放弃的人，”她在接受议会质询时说。
Then even more chaos broke out. Suella Braverman, Britain’s interior minister, stepped down after an email breach, but took a swipe at Ms. Truss in her resignation letter, saying she had “concerns about the direction of this government.” A vote on fracking in Parliament turned into a reported scene of bullying, shouting, physical manhandling and tears. More Conservative members of Parliament openly called for Ms. Truss to step down. Rumors swirled of high-profile resignations. It was difficult to keep up.
随后爆发了更混乱的局面。内政大臣苏拉·布雷弗曼在电子邮件泄露事件后下台，但她在辞职信中抨击了特拉斯，称“对本届政府的方向感到担忧”。据报道，议会对水力压裂技术禁令的投票演变成一场汇集霸凌、叫嚷、推搡和眼泪的闹剧。更多的保守党议员公开呼吁特拉斯下台。重要人物辞职的谣言四起。事态发展之快让人应接不暇。
“In short, it is total, absolute, abject chaos,” a news announcer said on iTV. Charles Walker, a Conservative lawmaker, did not hold back in an interview on BBC.
“简而言之，这是完全的、绝对的、可悲的混乱，”一位新闻播音员在iTV上说。保守党议员查尔斯·沃克尔在接受BBC采访时嘴上毫不留情。
On Thursday, she said she had handed her resignation to the king, with a new leadership election planned within a week.
周四，特拉斯说她已经向国王递交了辞呈，并计划在一周内举行新的领导人选举。
What comes next?
接下来会发生什么？
Ms. Truss will remain prime minister until her successor is chosen. (Here are the likely front-runners.) In her resignation remarks, Ms. Truss said a leadership election would be completed in the next week, bringing Britain its second unelected leader in a row.
在选出继任者之前，特拉斯将继续担任首相。（这里将介绍可能的候选人。）在她的辞职讲话中，特拉斯表示，党魁选举将在下周完成，英国将迎来第二位非选举产生的领导人。
The next general election — when the entire public can participate, and the next opportunity for Labour to take control — is not scheduled until January 2025 at the latest. A Conservative leader could call for one earlier, but they would have little reason to do so imminently since polls indicate the party would be wiped out by Labour.
下一次全体国民参与的大选最迟要到2025年1月才能进行，那也是工党夺权的下一个机会。保守党领导人可以提出提前选举，但短时间内他们没有理由这样做，因为民意调查显示保守党将被工党全面碾压。
Mr. Tonge said one advantage Conservatives have is time — the party could theoretically regain credibility if the economy recovers in the following years, he said.
汤格说，保守党的一个优势是时间——他说如果经济在接下来的几年中复苏，该党理论上可以重获信誉。
“I don’t think that changing the leader will necessarily save the Conservatives,” he said. “But you can engage in damage limitation by doing so.”
“我认为更换领导人不一定能拯救保守党，”他说。“但你可以通过这样做来止损。”