卡梅伦承诺将赋予苏格兰更多权力

卡梅伦承诺将赋予苏格兰更多权力

David Cameron will back further powers for Scotland whatever the outcome of talks on English devolution, Downing Street was forced to admit yesterday, in a move that will further anger his restless backbenchers. 英国政府昨日被迫承认，不管英格兰分权讨论的结果如何，首相戴维?卡梅伦(David Cameron)将支持赋予苏格兰更多权力。这一表态将进一步激怒保守党议员。

The prime minister, who hosts talks on the “English question” today with senior Tories at Chequers, riled his party by signing a vow promising new powers on tax and welfare for the Scottish parliament, and his attempt to appease them has unravelled over the weekend. 卡梅伦今日将在首相官邸与保守党(Tories)高官就“英格兰问题”召开会谈。上周末，他签署了一份承诺，将在税收和福利方面赋予苏格兰议会新的权力，这激怒了他所在的保守党，而卡梅伦试图安抚本党成员的努力也没能见效。

The fallout from last week’s Scottish independence referendum has descended into cross-party acrimony as the focus turned to the political conference season, starting with Labour in Manchester. 上周的苏格兰独立公投已导致英国三大政党陷入彼此间的尖锐指责。人们的焦点正在转向各党即将召开的年度大会，其中工党(Labour)大会将首先在曼彻斯特举行。

The prime minister tried to reassure Tory MPs last Friday that any new powers for Holyrood would be considered “in tandem” with a new drive to give English MPs more say over English-only legislation. 卡梅伦上周五试图安抚保守党议员。他表示，赋予苏格兰议会更多权力与一个新计划——即在英格兰立法方面赋予英格兰议员更多发言权——是“一致”的。

Downing Street insiders reaffirmed on Sunday that Mr Cameron was committed to bringing forward proposals on English votes on English laws and was “more than happy” to hold a vote on the West Lothian question if recommended by the cabinet committee he set up last week to consider English devolution. 英国政府内部人士上周日重申，卡梅伦将致力于推动有关英格兰人在英格兰法律方面投票权的提案。他们还表示，如果按照内阁委员会的建议，就“西洛锡安问题”(the West Lothian question，指除英格兰以外的地区是否有权对英格兰事务投票——译者注)进行投票表决，卡梅伦将“不胜喜悦”。这个委员会是卡梅伦上周设立的，任务是考虑英格兰分权问题。

At the Labour conference there was talk of “betrayal” by Mr Cameron in his attempt to mix the two issues and Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said the prime minister had acted “dishonourably”. 在工党会议上，有人说卡梅伦将这两个问题混在一起，是一种“背叛”，“影子”商务大臣丘卡?乌穆纳(Chuka Umunna)表示，卡梅伦这么做是“不光彩的”。

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, who announced his intention to resign after last week’s No vote in the independence referendum, told the BBC’s Sunday Politics that the “vow” signed by the leaders of the three main Westminster parties to transfer new powers to Holyrood was “cooked up in desperation from the last days of the campaign” and was now unravelling. 苏格兰首席大臣亚历克斯?萨尔蒙德(Alex Salmond)在上周公投结果出炉后宣布计划辞职。他周日在英国广播公司(BBC)的Sunday Politics节目中表示，英国三个主要政党领导人签署的将新的权力下放给苏格兰议会的承诺是“虚情假意的，是独立运动最后几天的绝望之举”，而现在这种承诺正在破裂。

But Tory MPs are urging Mr Cameron to press ahead with his plan to give more power to English MPs by putting the idea to a vote before the election, in an attempt to put Labour on the wrong side of public opinion. 然而保守党议员正敦促卡梅伦继续推行其计划，在大选前将对是否赋予英格兰议员更多权力举行投票。

Labour has 40 MPs in Scotland and Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, does not want to surrender his Commons majority after the next election by surrendering their voting rights over English legislation in areas such as education and health, which have been devolved to Holyrood. 译者/梁艳裳
 

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