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每日英語跟讀 Ep.K226: In Britain, Rising Prices and Shortages Evoke 1970s-Style Jitters
Long lines at gas stations, rising fuel prices, empty shelves in supermarkets and worries about runaway inflation.
加油站大排長龍，燃料價格上漲，超市貨架空無一物，大家憂心通貨膨脹失控。
Britons have emerged from 18 months of pandemic-imposed hibernation to find their country has many of the same afflictions it had during the 1970s. There is nothing Austin Powers-like about this time machine: Unlike the swinging '60s, the '70s were, by all accounts, some of the bleakest days in postwar Britain; even contemplating a return to them is enough to make leaders of the current government shiver.
英國人從疫情造成的18個月冬眠中醒來，發現國家遭遇許多與1970年代相同的痛苦。這次時光機器情節跟電影「王牌大賤諜」毫無相似之處：不同於動盪的1960年代，人們都說1970年代是戰後英國最淒涼的日子。只是想到要回到當時，就足以讓現任政府領導人不寒而慄。
The sudden burst of doomsaying in Britain is rooted at least as much in psychology as economics. While there is no question the country faces a confluence of problems — some caused by the pandemic, others by Brexit — experts said it was far too soon to predict that Britain was headed for the kind of economic malaise and political upheaval that characterized that decade.
英國突然爆發的末日預言，源自心理學的份量跟經濟學一樣多。無疑地，這個國家面臨一系列問題，一些由疫情引起，另一些由英國脫歐造成。專家們說，現在就預測英國將陷入那十年特有的經濟低迷與政治動盪，仍為時過早。
“It’s a combination of things that could, in principle, lead to that, but are quite survivable on their own,” said Jonathan Portes, a professor of economics at Kings College London. “We always talk about the 1970s, but it’s half a century later, and all sorts of things are different.”
倫敦國王學院經濟學教授波特斯說：「原則上來說，這樣的多種因素組合可能導致那種情況，但個別也能發揮作用。我們總是在談論1970年代，但已過去半個世紀了，一切都不一樣了。」
Britain’s economy, he noted, has bounced back faster from the pandemic than many experts predicted. The shortages in labor and some goods are likely a transitory effect of reopening much of the economy after prolonged lockdowns. Rising wages and supply bottlenecks are driving up the inflation rate, while the fuel shortages that have closed dozens of gas stations reflect a shortage of truck drivers, not of energy supplies.
他指，英國經濟從疫情中恢復的速度比許多專家預測還快。勞動力和一些商品短缺，可能是長期防疫封鎖後重新開放大部分經濟活動的短暫影響。工資上漲和供應瓶頸正在推升通膨率，而造成數十家加油站關閉的燃料短缺，反映的是卡車司機短缺，而非能源供應問題。
Nor does Britain have the aging industrial base and powerful unions it had in the 1970s. Labor unrest led to crippling strikes that brought down a Conservative prime minister, Edward Heath, and one of his Labour Party successors, James Callaghan, after what the tabloids called the winter of discontent, in 1979.
英國也沒有1970年代那樣老化的工業基礎與強大工會。1979年發生小報所稱的「不滿之冬」，勞工騷亂導致嚴重罷工，造成保守黨首相奚斯及他的工黨繼任者之一卡拉漢下台。
And yet the parallels are suggestive enough that the right-leaning Daily Mail warned that “Britain faces winter of woe” — a chilly welcome for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he returned from the United States, having celebrated a new submarine alliance and rallied countries in advance of a U.N. climate change conference in Scotland in November.
然而，一些相似之處足以引發聯想，讓右傾的每日郵報發出「英國面臨災難冬天」警告。對訪美歸來的英國首相強生而言，這是個冷淡迎接，他才剛慶祝新的潛艦聯盟成立，並在11月蘇格蘭聯合國氣候變遷會議前團結各國。
“That is a very easy ghost to resurrect,” said Kim Darroch, a former British ambassador to Washington who now sits in the House of Lords. “But these are real problems. You can just see this perfect storm coming.”
英國駐華府前大使、現為上議院議員的達洛許說：「那是個很容易復活的鬼魂，但這些都是實實在在的問題。你可以看到這場完美風暴逼近。」Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5804159