Cameron is gone but he leaves behind a happy ship
卡梅伦的政治遗产
广州英语翻译公司：波格丹诺：英国前首相卡梅伦代表了一种宽容、文明的保守主义。历史对他的评判，将比当今评论家之言更友好。
Europe has helped to destroy five of the past six Conservative prime ministers: Harold Macmillan, Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and now David Cameron. It was not meant to be like this.
欧洲已经帮忙毁掉了英国过去六位保守党首相中的五位：哈罗德•麦克米伦(Harold Macmillan)、爱德华•希斯(Edward Heath)、玛格丽特•撒切尔(Margaret Thatcher)、约翰•梅杰(John Major)以及戴维•卡梅伦(David Cameron)。这种结果并非欧洲的本意。广州英语翻译公司。
When Mr Cameron became leader in 2005, he hoped to stop his party “banging on” about Europe so that it could engage with the real needs of voters. Despite the outcome of the EU referendum, his legacy is unlikely to be defined by Europe as Anthony Eden’s is by the Suez crisis of 1956.
当卡梅伦2005年成为保守党领袖时，他希望保守党停止对欧洲“喋喋不休”，以便集中精力应对选民的真正需求。尽管公投结果决定退出欧盟，但不同于1956年的苏伊士运河危机决定了安东尼•艾登(Anthony Eden)的政治遗产，卡梅伦的政治遗产不大可能由欧洲来界定。
The Tories were in a parlous state in 2005. They were no longer the natural party of government, having lost three consecutive elections. Their support was concentrated among the elderly and the socially and geographically immobile. They were anathema to ethnic minorities and students. Since Tony Blair won his landslide majority in 1997 for the Labour party, the Conservatives had lost ground in constituencies where the proportion of university graduates was above average. By 2005, they were the third party among students, behind the Liberal Democrats, and seen by many, as Theresa May pointed out, as the “nasty party”.
2005年，保守党危机四伏。他们不再是天然的执政党，已经连续三次在大选中失利。他们的支持者主要是老年人、以及社会地位和居住地稳定的人。少数族裔、学生都厌恶他们。自1997年托尼•布莱尔(Tony Blair)领导工党赢得压倒性多数席位以来，保守党在高校毕业生比例高于平均水平的选区已经失去了优势。截至2005年，保守党在学生中的受欢迎程度已滑至第三名，落后于自由民主党(Liberal Democrats)。正如特里萨•梅(Theresa May)所指出的，保守党已被很多人视为“讨厌的党”。 广州英语翻译公司。
Not only did they appear socially illiberal. Their reputation as sound custodians of the economy had not recovered from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism debacle under Mr Major in 1992. The party seemed unelectable.
当时保守党不仅在社会问题上显得立场狭隘，其作为英国经济合格管理者的声誉也仍未从1992年梅杰政府退出欧洲汇率机制中恢复过来。保守党似乎不可能再赢得大选。
Mr Cameron changed all that. From student days, he had seen that the Tories could be successful only if they combined economic efficiency with social liberalism. He came to power in 2010 in the middle of an economic crisis but, five years later,
卡梅伦改变了这一切。从学生时代开始，他就意识到，保守党只有将经济效率与社会自由主义结合起来才能成功。他在2010年经济危机时期上台执政，五年后，英国成为八国集团(G8)中经济增速最快的国家。
Indeed, it was economic success that gave Brexiters the confidence to propose life outside the EU. At the time of the first Europe referendum in 1975,
实际上，正是经济上的成功给了退欧派脱离欧盟的信心。1975年首次进行退欧公投之际，英国的经济状况如此之糟，以至于欧共体专员里斯托弗•索姆斯(Christopher Soames)警告称，现在不是离开“圣诞储蓄金”的时候，更不用说退出共同市场了。广州英语翻译公司。
The recovery was, admittedly, concentrated in London and the British economy remained highly unbalanced. But George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse, a radical policy of devolving power to Greater Manchester and other urban centres, sought to remedy this while, at the same time, resolving the “English Question”.
无可否认，复苏主要集中在伦敦，英国经济仍然非常不平衡。但乔治•奥斯本(George Osborne)提出的英格兰“北部经济引擎”(northern powerhouse)计划——一项对大曼彻斯特(Greater Manchester)等都会圈下放权力的激进政策——试图纠正这种局面，同时解决这一“英格兰问题”。
Mr Cameron’s aim, however, was not simply to secure economic recovery. He also sought the “Big Society” — more equal life chances and an aspiration nation. Though blown off course by the economic crisis and Europe, he still achieved significant reforms. The expansion of academies and the introduction of free schools — 150 by 2015 — with reforms in the curriculum and the examination system — should in the long run raise educational standards. Certainly the days of what Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair’s press spokesman, called “the bog standard comprehensive” are well and truly over.
然而，卡梅伦的目标不仅仅是实现经济复苏。他还希望构建一个“大社会”——更平等的生存机会以及一个有抱负的国家。虽然被经济危机和欧洲带离了航向，他仍实现了重大的改革。长远来看，专科院校的扩张以及推出自由学校（截至2015年共建立150所）并改革课程和考试制度，应该能够提升教育水平。布莱尔的新闻发言人阿拉斯泰尔•坎贝尔(Alastair Campbell)所称的“一般综合中学”的日子无疑完全结束了。广州英语翻译公司。
In welfare, reforms to disability benefits and delays with universal credit have been justly criticised. Nevertheless, the welfare-to-work programme has led to the proportion of out-of-work households being the lowest for nearly 20 years, while gay marriage emphasised Mr Cameron’s social liberalism.
在福利方面，对伤残补助的改革以及延迟通用福利金受到了应有的批评。然而，工作性福利计划使得失业家庭的比例降至近20年来的最低水平，与此同时，同性婚姻合法化也突出了卡梅伦倡导的社会自由主义。
Perhaps the most striking evidence of his tolerant approach is the good feeling he created in government: a happy ship in contrast to the cabinet squabbles of the Blair and Brown years. It was this good feeling that made coalition possible. Many Conservative MPs complained that he got on better with the Liberal Democrats than with his own rightwing. In 2015, Mr Cameron might have secretly hoped for a second coalition rather than an overall majority, and potentially avoided the EU referendum.
说到卡梅伦宽容的执政风格，最明显的证据或许是他在政府中创造的良好氛围：一艘快乐的船，这与布莱尔及布朗(Brown)执政时期内阁的争执吵闹形成鲜明对比。正是这种良好氛围使得组建联合政府成为可能。许多保守党议员抱怨，比起自己所在的右翼阵营，卡梅伦与自由民主党相处得更加融洽。2015年，卡梅伦或许曾暗自希望再次组建联合政府，而非保守党占绝对多数，而且有可能避免进行退欧公投。
A political leader should be judged less as a legislator than as an educator. Tony Benn once ruefully commented that, even if one repealed every legislative act of Thatcher’s 13 years in power, her legacy as a teacher would remain.
人们更应将政治领袖作为教育家而非立法者加以评判。托尼•本(Tony Benn)曾暗叹道，即便废除撒切尔执政13年间的所有立法法案，她作为教师的遗产也会流传下来。广州英语翻译公司。
Mr Cameron’s will be as a teacher of a generous and civilised Conservatism, which attracted the support of centre and centre-left voters. It was these voters who last year gave the Conservatives their first overall majority since 1992. It is a legacy which Mrs May, judging from her speech on Monday, with its emphasis on a socially responsible Conservatism, seems determined to continue.
而卡梅伦将作为一种宽容、文明的保守主义的导师留下他的政治遗产，这种保守主义吸引了中间及中左派选民的支持。去年正是这些选民让保守党自1992年以来首次获得议会绝对多数席位。从梅在周一发表的演说——强调了一种对社会负责任的保守主义——来看，她似乎决心继承这种遗产接着走下去。
History will judge Mr Cameron more kindly than today’s commentariat. For, as Iain Macleod, Conservative colonial secretary in the 1960s, noticed, “the Conservative party is a very generous party. It always forgives those who are wrong. Sometimes it even forgives those who are right.”
历史对卡梅伦的评判将比当今评论家之言更友好。正如上世纪60年代保守党殖民地事务大臣伊恩•麦克劳德(Iain Macleod)指出的：“保守党是一个非常宽厚的政党。它总是宽恕那些犯错的人。有时，它甚至宽恕那些做对了的人。”
The writer is professor of government at King’s College, London
本文作者是伦敦大学国王学院(King’s College London)政府学教授
