【经济学人】白芝浩专栏——鲁斯·戴维森,祖国的未来,党国的希望 [英国媒体]

许多证据已经证明了权力下放的好处,譬如使得权力更亲民,以及给予少数民族文化一定的发言权,但最大的好处之一是,从数量上和种类上提供人才的新鲜血液。苏格兰保守党领袖鲁斯·戴维森就是这样一个典型的例子:她的崛起既是对保守党现如今混乱不堪现状的一种控诉,更是证明了她是守护保守主义纲领的唯一希望。

Bagehot
Ruth Davidson, the Conservatives’ northern star

鲁斯·戴维森,保守党人的北方之星

The Scottish Tories’ leader is an antidote to much that is wrong with the Conservative Party

苏格兰保守党的领军人物,是日益昏庸的保守党的大救星



Jul 27th 2017
THERE are lots of good arguments for devolution, such as bringing power closer to the people and providing a voice for cultural minorities. But one of the best is that it increases the supply of talent, not just in terms of quantity but also variety. Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, is as good an example of this as you can get: both a standing indictment of the current state of her party in the south and proof that there is still hope for Conservatism.

许多证据已经证明了权力下放的好处,譬如使得权力更亲民,以及给予少数民族文化一定的发言权,但最大的好处之一是,从数量上和种类上提供人才的新鲜血液。苏格兰保守党领袖鲁斯·戴维森就是这样一个典型的例子:她的崛起既是对保守党现如今混乱不堪现状的一种控诉,更是证明了她是守护保守主义纲领的唯一希望。

(译者注:权力下放是英国政府自1997年起,将立法、税收等权限下放给威尔士、苏格兰、北爱尔兰等地方议会自治)

Ms Davidson is the polar opposite of Theresa May. Most obviously she is a winner: under her leadership the Scottish Tories increased their number of MPs from one to 13 while Mrs May lost her overall majority. Mrs May is mind-bogglingly inarticulate for someone who has been in politics all her life—all formulaic phrases and woolly banalities. Ms Davidson is a great talker.

和特蕾莎·梅相比,戴维森就是另一个极端,当然她是人生赢家:在她的领导下,这次大选,苏格兰保守党将议会席位从1席扩大到了13席,而梅姨却还是失去了议会整体多数席位。有些人觉得,梅姨在她的整个政治生涯中,令人费解地缺乏人性化,只会公式化地套用词缀和模糊地说一些陈词滥调,与之相比,戴维森却是相当的健谈

But the most important contrast is not between Ms Davidson and Mrs May, who is on the way out, but between Ms Davidson and the Conservative Party as a whole. The party often seems to be out of touch with modern Britain. Several cabinet members might have been frozen in the 1950s. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a backbencher who is being touted as a future leader by the party’s kamikaze wing, might have been frozen in the 1850s.

但最重要的区别不是在戴维森和地位摇摇欲坠的梅姨个人之间,而是戴维森与保守党整体相比,就是一股清流。保守党已变得越来越与现代英国格格不入,一些内阁成员或许还沉浸在上世纪50年代的光景中,而被党派中极右翼派别视为未来接班人的雅各布·里斯-莫格更是活在19世纪50年代

By contrast, Ms Davidson is a citizen of modern Britain. Her father lost his job in a textile mill in one of the endless downsizings that have left industrial Scotland a hollow shell. She went to what she describes as a “proper comprehensive” in Fife with 1,500 pupils of varying abilities. Much is made by profile writers of the fact that she is both a lesbian and a kick-boxer (though in fact she gave up kick-boxing years ago). Just as important in defining her as a modern citizen is that, at 38, she is only now getting round to buying her first house with her partner.

与这些人相比,戴维森毫无疑问是现代社会的一员。她的父亲曾在一家纺织厂工作,但却成了蛀空苏格兰工业的裁员大潮中的一员,于是她和1500多名不同履历的孩子们一起搬到了法夫郡居住(她曾以“海纳百川”来来形容该郡),曾有许多报道描述了这个一个事实:她是一名女同性恋,也是一名自由搏击选手(尽管她多年前已退役)。另外一个将其定义为现代公民的重要标志是,她今年38岁,才刚开始着手为自己和父母购置第一套房

Because it is so out of touch, the Tory party can seem frivolous. Politics is a game played by chums who have known each other since school or Oxbridge and spend their lives alternately knifing each other and making up. Though not as dour as Gordon Brown, Ms Davidson exudes an admirable disdain for such southern decadence. She points out that these are serious times: Britain is in danger of crashing out of the European Union and a dangerous populist tide is rising across the West.

因为与时代是如此的脱节,整个保守党已似乎变得相当浮躁,保守党的政治圈已经沦为一场靠着学生时代建立的裙带关系的游戏,政客们人前粉饰太平,背后互相捅刀,角色如走马灯式来回转换。尽管戴维森不像前工党首相戈登·布朗一样总是不给人好脸色,从她言行举止仍可以看出她对南方同僚种种恶劣行径的深深鄙视,她毫不避讳的指出,目前形势严峻:英国正面临被欧盟踢出局以及席卷西方国家的民粹主义浪潮的双重危险

The Conservative high-command is intellectually dead. The party fought this year’s election on an interesting manifesto which tried to define the role of the nation-state in a volatile and globalised world. But Mrs May proved incapable of explaining it. And then the entire thing blew up because of an ill-thought-out section on paying for elderly care. Since then the party has been out of ideas. Mrs May lacks the ability to craft a new philosophy. Ministers can’t fill the void because they are bound by collective responsibility. The result is drift and factional infighting. Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s hard-left leader, sets the agenda because he at least has something to say; the Tories obsess over who should lead them because they have nothing to say.

保守党的高层们明显是脑短路了,今年的大选中,保守党提出了一个非常吸引人的纲领,试图定义英吉利民族在充满变数的全球化世界中扮演的角色,但梅姨却在解释纲领的时候搞砸,接着整个大选局面因为推出考虑不周的“痴呆税”而变的失控。自此之后,保守党就变的江郎才尽,梅姨缺乏领导能力,不能重新塑造新的治国方针,大臣们在集体责任制下谁也不敢出头填补空白,最终导致了党派分崩离析,各派系之间内斗不断。而工党的极左领袖杰里米·科尔宾所推出的治国方针,至少证明他还有话可说,而保守党忙着争夺领导权而内斗,因为他们实在乏善可陈。

Ms Davidson is well-positioned to fill this void. She is not bound by cabinet responsibility nor subject to whipping (she is a member of the Scottish Parliament, not the House of Commons). But she also possesses the authority of a politician who has fought several elections and two referendum campaigns in the past five years. And she has plenty to say: in an article for a new website, UnHerd, she proposes a radical reboot of capitalism.

戴维森是填补空白的有利人选,她既不在内阁任职而束手束脚,也不受党鞭制约(她是苏格兰议会的议员,不是下议院议员),但在过去五年中的数次大选和两次公投中,她依旧享有一名政客的权力。她也非常的有见地,在新建网站《单飞网》的一篇文章中,她表达了对现行资本主义制度进行彻底改革的主张

Ms Davidson starts off with a paradox: the world as a whole has never been richer but the consensus for free markets has never been more fragile. The reason for this is that the very process that has enriched the emerging world—globalisation—has hollowed out the old industrial world. Young Britons face a dismal prospect. If they stay in their home towns, they can’t find any jobs. If they move to the big city, they can’t afford anywhere to live. The very least the Tories can do is to address the housing problem. But they need to go much further: attacking crony capitalism, even if it means biting the hand that feeds them, closing tax havens and breaking up over-mighty companies.

在文章的开篇,戴维森提出了一个悖论:全球的财富总量并没有增加,但自由市场的维系却已面临解体。造成这种局面的原因正是曾使新兴世界变的富有、蛀空旧有工业体系的全球化,英国的年轻人的前途黯淡无光,如果他们呆在家乡,就会失业,如果去大城市,也负担不起居住成本,保守党所能做的也不过是致力于解决住房问题,但他们还需更进一步:向裙带资本主义开刀,哪怕这意味着对自己的金主下手;关闭避税天堂;关掉那些大而不能倒的企业

Ms Davidson’s ideas are sketchy. She doesn’t say anything about the financial crisis, which precipitated the current era of stagnation, or address Britain’s lousy record on productivity. It nevertheless points in the right direction: if the Tories aren’t willing to take on their own constituents, particularly in the business world, they will deliver the country to Mr Corbyn. Ms Davidson says that she will have much more to say in the future. Having been immersed in day-to-day politics for years she wants to spend more time thinking big thoughts.
---戴维森的叙述未尽详细,她没有提及造成如今经济增长停滞的金融危机,也没有强调英国在保证生产力上的斑斑劣迹,不过她的确说到了点子上:如果保守党不愿意对自己的选民作出让步,尤其是在商业方面,那后果就是将政权拱手送给科尔宾的工党。戴维森表示,今后她会发表更多类似的文章,数年政治生涯的浸淫,使她愿意花更多的时间构筑更大的蓝图

Tae think again

容她三思 (苏格兰国歌中的歌词)

She is inevitably dogged by the leadership question: has she any plans to run for a seat in Westminster and make a bid to succeed Mrs May? A growing number of Tories see her as a saviour, believing that, given the party’s toxic reputation with the young, the only chance it has of reviving its fortunes is to choose a leader who is young and different. Ms Davidson retorts that she is completely focused on building the party in Scotland and eventually replacing Nicola Sturgeon as first minister.

她会不可避免地被卷入争夺党魁位置的流言中:难道她对于竞选下议院议员,进而争取取代梅姨就没有一点想法?保守党内部有越来越多的人将她视为救世主,他们认为,党派在年轻人中的声望已狼藉不堪,重振雄风的唯一途径就是选择一名年轻的、与众不同的新领袖。对此戴维森予以了否认,她说道她目前正全心全意发展苏格兰保守党,试图最终取代尼古拉斯·斯特金成为苏格兰首席部长

This is not just spin. Abandoning the leadership of the Scottish Conservatives for a seat in Westminster would not only be a gamble for Ms Davidson personally but would also reinforce the Scottish National Party’s claim that the local Tories are no more than the tail of the English dog. But remaining in Scotland doesn’t prevent her from helping to reshape the national party. The Tories need to decide what they stand for if they are to have any chance of acting as an effective government or holding back the tide of Corbynism. They also need to define themselves if they are not to be defined by their enemies. Ms Davidson’s brand of Conservatism—open but pragmatic, forward-looking and flexible—is exactly what the party needs.

她说的并不仅是烟幕弹。放弃苏格兰保守党的党魁位置,转而成为下议院的议员,这对于戴维森不仅是一场赌博,也会坐实苏格兰民族党所谓的“苏格兰保守党只能在保守党中敬陪末座”的说法。但留在苏格兰并不会阻止她掌控全局,如果保守党还是想要有效扮演政府的角色,阻止科尔宾主义的扩张的话,必须就自己所代表的立场作出抉择,他们必须认清自我,免得被敌人有机可乘,而戴维森所高举的保守主义大旗:"开明而注重实用,高瞻远瞩而又灵活变通",正是党派所急需的