EastEnders

http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/

http://www.answers.com/EastEnders


英國也有長壽劇　已播25年 【10/29 09:45】

〔中央社〕一播數百集的長壽劇，可不只台灣才有。英國貿易文化辦事處的「瘋英國」部落格，收錄不同於旅遊書的英倫風，介紹播了25年的長壽劇，如同台灣本土劇，描繪小人物的生活點滴。

今年3月中旬設置的「瘋英國」（Fun in UK）中文部落格，由辦事處副代表馮梅瑞（Margaret Tongue）和其他5名辦事處工作人員共同擔任寫手，以個人角度介紹不一樣的英倫風。

其中，辦事處的台籍員工Bonbon曾在倫敦留學5年，當時每週一、二、四常與寄宿家庭的媽媽一起觀看播出長達25年之久的「東倫敦人」（EastEnders）。

「東倫敦人」故事發生地設定在東倫敦華爾福（Walford）地區，情節環繞在幾個普通家庭的生活悲喜情節上。

Bonbon表示，東倫敦地區比較貧窮，很多勞工階層人口，因此「東倫敦人」劇情也與英國勞工生活大小事連結在一起，例如各項補助、失業話題等，也少不了婚外情、同性戀等現代議題。

但Bonbon認為，劇中最具特色的是老人生活情節，反映出英國社會福利制度；此外，各種族群元素，包括黑人、亞洲人、土耳其人及波蘭人的角色，也描繪歐洲的多源移民現象。

由於劇情寫實，她還一度以為華爾福這個地方真的存在，其實只是虛構。

Bonbon說，觀看英國本土劇，讓她對倫敦的種族、文化及生活有更深的了解，也學了不少學校裡學不到的當地俚語。

Letter From Europe

More Than the Channel Divides Britain and France

By ALAN COWELL

Published: October 22, 2010

PARIS — If there is one quality that unites France and Britain, it is a shared history of mutual divergence, verging on derision.

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Ken Goff/Time & Life Pictures--Getty Images

Uncollected garbage piled up on the streets of London during a sanitation strike in 1979. These days, Britain experiences fewer strikes and protests.

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High school students in Paris on Thursday were among about a million fellow citizens who have protested against a plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60.

And so it was instructive this past week to observe the responses on both sides of the Channel to Europe’s economic malaise spreading like a dark fog occluding the future.

Faced with the prospect of a longer working life until a minimum retirement age of 62 (up from the current 60), a million French citizens took to the streets, as strikers closed refineries and blockaded fuel depots, leaving motorists to fume in line for gasoline and diesel.

But, confronting government measures promising not only a longer working life but 19 percent cuts in public spending, the loss of almost half a million public-sector jobs, steep reductions in welfare payments and five bleak years of austerity, the British barely seemed to blink.

That, of course, may change, as it did in the late 1970s when a previous generation of Britons struggled through the so-called winter of discontent. Strikes then were so widespread that garbage piled up outside homes, cemetery operators considered mass burials at sea (the gravediggers had downed shovels) and dark thoughts gathered in British hearts.

But since those days, a legacy of labor unions weakened by the Conservative Margaret Thatcher has dampened the appetite for the collective struggle still cherished in France.

“French people tend to like to demonstrate,” the French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said when asked to compare French and British national reflexes.

Taking to the streets, some argue, is a rite of passage for the young and, for the older, a right at the heart of the French way of democracy since the toppling of the aristocracy in 1789.

“What’s at stake here is not the retirement age, or jobs for students, but the very nature of power in this country,” said Lucy Wadham, a British novelist and blogger living in France.

But that is not to say that the latest unrest is hewn from the same political flagstones as the revolutionary barricades of 1968 that defined an era: It is a cents-and-euros struggle to avert the inevitable moment when decades of cumulative benefits — from short work weeks to long vacations, from state health care to early retirement — begin to unravel.

As la retraite — retirement — so the nation.

“France’s problem is that, for too long, the economy has been run as a kind of job club for French workers,” said an editorial in The Spectator, a conservative British magazine. “Britain and France believe in liberty, but have different definitions of it.”

While the British believe in “liberty from government,” the editorial said, the French “still like the big state and squeal at the prospect of being removed from its teat.”

The French also pay higher club dues and expect commensurate rewards. French pensions can reach three-quarters of a working wage, compared with just over two-fifths in Britain. So, if French workers and teenagers strike over their pensions, there’s plenty to protest about.

The British do, of course, demonstrate. Protests spilling to violence changed the national course most notably in riots against Mrs. Thatcher’s poll tax in 1990. In 2000, truckers’ protests starved the entire country of fuel.

People turned out in huge numbers — and in vain — to protest the war in Iraq in 2003, when Tony Blair dispatched more than 40,000 Britons to fight alongside the Americans. Demonstrators confronted the police to rail against globalization at the Group of 20 summit meeting in London in 2009.

But the legacy is defined more by the weakening of protest than its vindication.

“There is growing bitterness and anger in England,” said Tariq Ali, once a firebrand on the barricades, in a posting on the Web site of The Guardian, a British newspaper. “The French epidemic could spread, but nothing will happen from above. Young and old fought Thatcher and lost. Her New Labour successors made sure that the defeats she inflicted were institutionalized.”

There may be a sense, too, that, as old Labourites like to insist, the Conservatives are up to old tricks to benefit the rich and trample the poor, to divide and rule.

Those imposing the cuts are largely from the private schools and top universities that have traditionally been the wellspring of the elite, cushioned by privately funded health care, schools, stock portfolios and pensions. Those feeling the pain, many economists argue, are those with the least access to privilege.

“We have seen people cheering the deepest cuts to public spending in living memory,” Alan Johnson, the opposition Labour finance spokesman, declared across the floor of Parliament. “For some members opposite, this is their ideological objective. Not all of them, but for many of them, this is what they came into politics for.”

If Britain falls prey to protest, there will be sharper overtones of class struggle than solidarity. Britain is a more divided society than France. Wealth is more ostentatious, poverty more visible. People in Britain have learned to have sharper elbows in pursuit of individual gain, while France prides itself on a broader concordat.

“Social confrontation is part of our democracy,” said Prime Minister François Fillon, “but social consensus is, as well.”

Of course, there is an inherent stoicism in Britain, woven into the Second World War spirit of bulldog resolve in the face of hardship. When suicide bombers attacked London in July 2005, killing 52 people, the response was not rage but quiet resolve.

“The British no longer do strikes, and certainly do not take to the streets in the same way as our confreres on the Continent. Or is that about to change?” the columnist Mehdi Hasan wrote in the leftist New Statesman. “We are now a nation divided. The ax has fallen. The bloodletting has begun.”

And, of course, a winter is approaching — if not of discontent, then certainly of cold comfort and complaint.

The List: School Uniform

2010年10月21日 06:31 AM

英国顶级中学校服够夸张

The List: School Uniform

作者：英国《金融时报》撰稿人 丽莎•弗里德曼(Lisa Freedman)

Next week British children will start to swap summer shorts and T-shirts for sensible skirts and trousers as another autumn term begins. Opinions on school uniform are divided: it is either essential for self-respect and team spirit or it’s an anachronism designed to distinguish the privileged from hoi polloi. But few would deny that England’s top independent schools take uniforms to extravagant lengths.	随着又一个秋季学期的开始，英国的孩子们将开始把夏天的短裤和T恤衫换成裙子或长裤。 舆论对于校服的看法并不一致：要么认为它是保存自尊和团队精神必不可少的要素，要么认为它是旨在划分特权阶层和普通大众的不合时宜之物。但是很少有人会否 认，英国顶级独立学校对于校服所花的心思堪称夸张。
1. Uniforms as fancy dress	1、舞会服装
If you want your children to lead the country, they need to be trained to stand out from the crowd and Eton College does the job nicely. The Eton tailcoat was originally created for 19th-century gentlemen but remains virtually unchanged for today’s generation of iPod-toting pupils. “There is no better cure for self-consciousness,” wrote JDR McConnell in his 1967 guide to the college.	如果你希望你的孩子将来能领导这个国家，那他们就需要接受鹤立鸡群的训练，伊顿公学 (Eton College)在这方面就做得很出色。伊顿燕尾服最初是为19世纪的绅士而创设的，但如今依然穿在那些手拿iPod的学生身上的，与当初的燕尾服几无差 别。“没有比这更好的方法来培养自我意识了，”麦康奈尔(JDR McConnell)在1967年他的入学导言中写道。
2. Glad not to be grey	2、很高兴，不是灰色
Prince Charles was the first heir to the throne to share a classroom with the great untitled when he attended Hill House, a preparatory school near Harrods. Its founding head, Lt-Col Stuart Townsend, required pupils to march the streets of Knightsbridge in burgundy knickerbockers, yellow jumpers and cravats. “A grey uniform produces grey boys,” said the colonel’s wife Beatrice, who designed the look.	查尔斯王子在哈罗兹附近的山丘小屋(Hill House)预备学校就读时，成为第一个与杰出平民共用一间教室的王位继承人。该校创始人、校长斯图尔特•汤森德中校(Lt-Col Stuart Townsend)要求学生们在骑士桥街道上游行时身穿紫红色灯笼裤、黄色套衫和围巾。“灰色的校服会导致灰色的男孩，”上校的妻子、设计了这套校服的比 阿特丽斯(Beatrice)说。
3. Uniforms as fashion statement	3、时尚宣言
Some of central London’s most sought-after prep schools know that their international clientele want their own little princesses to look like the real thing. The uniform at Chelsea’s Garden House Girls’ School, for example, includes a well-cut tweed coat in a fetching shade of aquamarine, accessorised with a chic little beret in matching velvet – how like the young Queen!	一些伦敦市中心最热门的预备学校知道，他们的国际客户希望自己的小公主看起来像真的公 主一样，例如在切尔西的花园别墅女校(Garden House Girls’ School)。该校校服是一件精心剪裁、迷人的碧绿色花呢外套，一顶别致的小贝雷帽——由与之相配的天鹅绒制作——这身打扮多么像年轻的女王啊！
4. Uniforms as business suits	4、西服
Westminster School, Britain’s most expensive day school, insists on the grey business suit. But not all “Wets” conform to City standards and the untucked shirt-tail is a characteristic twist – though clearly not in the case of former pupil Nick Clegg.	英国收费最昂贵的走读学校威斯敏斯特学院(Westminster School)坚持选用灰色西服作校服。但是，并非所有的“威斯敏斯特学子”都符合伦敦金融城的标准，分开的衬衫下摆就是一个典型的扭曲之处——虽然该校 曾经的学生尼克•克莱格(Nick Clegg)明显不属于这种情况。(译注：尼克•克莱格是英国第3大党自由民主党党魁。)
5. Keeping women in their place	5、考虑女学生的需要
Only public schools appear to think that their female pupils still require well-covered ankles – no doubt as protection from chilly blasts and lascivious glances. Both Marlborough College and Rugby School demand that girls’ skirt lengths graze the floor (though Rugby has kindly re-designed the garment to enable the poor things to run).	看起来只有公立学校会认为他们的女学生仍然需要让脚踝得到良好的保护——毫无疑问，这 是要防范寒冷的狂风和淫荡的目光。莫尔伯勒学院(Marlborough College)和拉格比学校(Rugby School)要求女生的裙子长及地板（虽然拉格比已经体贴地重新设计了校服，让穷人也能吃得消）。
6. Blue coats cut a dash	6、蓝色外套大出风头
At Christ’s Hospital in Sussex boys, too, enjoy swirling hemlines. The school’s famous floor-length blue coats – dating from the school’s foundation in Tudor times – are accompanied by yellow stockings and knee breeches. Though perhaps a tad embarrassing in the early years, older boys find it helps them cut a romantic figure.	在苏塞克斯郡的基督学校(Christ’s Hospital)，男孩也能享受旋转式裙边的待遇。该校著名的及地式蓝色外套——始自该校在都铎时代成立时——配的是黄色长袜和齐膝短裤。虽然也许让年 龄小些的学生有点尴尬，但年龄大些的男孩发现，它可以帮助他们营造出浪漫的调调。
Lisa Freedman runs the schools consultancy At the School Gates, www.attheschoolgates.co.uk	丽莎•弗里德曼经营着一家学校事务咨询公司At the School Gates，www.attheschoolgates.co.uk
	译者/郁之

"England expects that every man will do his duty."

Spotlight:

Reenactment of the Battle of Trafalgar

Who is the Trafalgar honored in London's Trafalgar Square? Trafalgar wasn't a who, but a what: it refers to the Battle of Trafalgar that took place in Cape Trafalgar, on the southwest coast of Spain, on this date in 1805. In a decisive show of Britain's superiority on the seas, a British fleet of 27 ships defeated the combined fleets of France and Spain, which totaled 33 ships. Admiral Horatio Nelson led the charge that broke through the center of the French line, capturing 20 of the boats. No British ships were lost. Nelson, however, was shot and killed by a French sniper. The severe defeat convinced Napoleon not to invade England.

Quote:

"England expects that every man will do his duty." — Horatio Nelson's signal to his forces as they entered the Battle of Trafalgar

Squeezing the UK

新闻报道 | 2010.10.21

英国将实施战后最严格节约计划

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:

本周三，英国政府公布了二战结束以来最严厉的削减公共开支计划。根据该计划，政府和公共服务部门将削减50万个工作岗位，经费预算将减少五分之一，首当其冲受影响的是社会福利领域。

英国财政大臣奥斯本在议会下院公布节约计划时，着力强调目前国家财政的严峻状况："今天是英国悬崖勒马，重建信任的时刻。我们将制定一个四年计划，使我们的公共服务事业和社会福利体系建立在一个长期稳固的基础上。"

根据奥斯本的计划，今后4年，英国的政府及公共开支将削减810亿英镑（约合900亿欧元），其中社会福利领域开支将减少70亿英镑（约80亿欧 元）。在政府部门中，环保和农业部必须在2015年底之前减少开支33%，贸易、外交、文化、内政、司法和交通部门的节约定额在21%到25%之间。不在 强制削减支出之列的是基础教育、医疗卫生和发展援助部门，这些部门的预算甚至有所增加。

女王也要节省开支

英国政府和公共服务部门将削减近50万个就业岗位。财政大臣奥斯本对此表示遗憾，但强调："在国家财政捉襟见肘的情况下，这是无法避免的步骤。"

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: 财政大臣奥斯本（George Osborne）在下院公布节约计划就 连英国女王也难以幸免，2012-2013财政年度，王室预算将减少14%。未来英国警察部门的预算将减少，在本届政府任期内外交部的经费将减少24%。 政府将修改有关残疾人补助和住房补贴的规定，以减少这方面的支出。此外英国将实施提高法定退休年龄的时间提前6年，从2020年起，男女退休年龄均提高到 66岁。英国男性的退休年龄现为65岁，女性为60岁。这一措施实行后，每年将节约50亿英镑的养老金支出。

在野党对政府的计划提出强烈反对。影子财政大臣约翰逊（Alan Johnson）称这一计划是"不顾后果"的，英国民众将成为牺牲品,"今天，抽象的数字和文件成为人们要面对的现实，无数英国人将失去他们的工作岗位、公共服务和他们未来的前景。"

四年内将赤字减半

但执政的联合政府将目前窘境归咎于其前任工党政府制造了庞大的政府债务，并强调必须尽快采取行动，这样才能恢复投资者对英国经济的信心。中间偏右的 智库机构"政策交流"（Policy Exchange）的首席经济师利里科（Andrew Lilico）认为，鉴于英国巨大的财政赤字，削减开支的措施是必要的：

"英国的财政赤字几乎达到GDP的10%，这毫无疑问超出了限度。不妨比较一下，欧盟内部条约规定，成员国赤字不得超过GDP的3%，超标是不允许的，而我们的债务已经是这个标准的3倍多，3%的限度已经被认为是绝对不能超越的上限，即便是在非常糟糕的经济情况下。"

英国的工会组织已宣布将开展反对在公共行业减少工作岗位的斗争，并威胁将采取包括罢工在内的形式广泛的抗争。在伦敦的议会大楼前，已有示威者进行抗议：

"在经济危机中，普通的工薪阶层已经被迫大出血，而造成这一后果的是金融机构和银行。"

"我们将失去许多公共服务，比如社会工作人员和护理人员。"

"就算我们的意见现在没有人听，我们还会回来的。我们不会放弃斗争。"

政府计划，在4年内通过减少810亿英镑的开支，将英国的财政赤字减半。联合政府表示这将使英国经济重新步入健康轨道。反对党则指责这一严苛计划的效果可能适得其反，使英国经济再次陷入衰退。

作者：Olly Barratt 编译：叶宣

责编：石涛

2010年10月22日 07:33 AM

FT社评：英国瘦身计划真的有效？

Squeezing the UK

英国《金融时报》 社评

George Osborne, UK chancellor of the exchequer, on Wednesday presented his comprehensive spending review as a programme for growth, fairness and reform. There was some of each. But not quite as much as he pretended.	英国财务大臣乔治•奥斯本(George Osborne)周三公布了他的《全面支出评估报告》(CSR)，并将之作为一项促进增长、公平和改革的计划。该计划确实对这三方面都有所促进，但决不会像他声称的那样有效。
There was little in the speech to shock. As Mr Osborne said in his June Budget, he plans to cut spending by £83bn to eliminate the structural deficit – which hit 5.3 per cent of output last year – and stabilise the public debt by the 2014-2015 fiscal year.	奥斯本的讲话实属老调重弹。与他在6月份公布的紧急预算案中所说的一样，他计划削减支出830亿英镑，以消除结构性赤字（去年占总产出的5.3%）；到2014-15财年，确保公共债务企稳。
These are swingeing cuts. However, politically, Mr Osborne has pulled off the CSR as well as he could have hoped. The public is by now inured to awful public finance figures, and the coalition may not have a real fight on its hands until the cuts start to bite next year.	这些削减可谓极为严厉。但从政治上讲，奥斯本已克服重重困难，如愿推出了这项计划。公众迄今已习惯了可怕的公共财政数字；而在减支计划明年开始显示出威力前，执政联盟恐怕并不需要面对什么真正的挑战。
The government’s commitment to cutting so fast is a gamble with an economy that is still weak. However it preferred it to the alternative risk of bond investors fleeing from gilts. Though that danger was always exaggerated, the government is, on balance, right to use the opportunity to rein in spending – provided that growth in fact picks up as forecasters predict.	英国政府承诺如此快速地削减支出，是拿依然疲弱的英国经济来博上一把。不过，英国政府宁愿如此也不愿冒另一种风险：即债券投资者逃离金边债券。尽管这种风险向来有所夸大，但总的说来，英国政府利用这一机会来严控支出是对的——前提是经济增长果真如预测人士所料的那样加速。
In terms of its direct impact on aggregate demand it is a stretch to call this a programme for growth. Mr Osborne hopes that the private sector will pick up the slack, but he missed an opportunity to spell out what to do if that hope fails. He tossed a few bones to long-term growth by staying his hand on science research and transport investment. But overall capital spending stays at the same insufficient level his predecessors reduced it to.	就该计划对总需求的直接影响而言，说它能促进增长实在有些牵强。奥斯本希望，私人部门 会出面提供支出；但他没有抓住机会阐明，如果这一希望落空，又该怎么办。他这次的斧头没有砍向科研和交通投资，这对长期增长的确有一定帮助。但总资本支出 仍然不足，与其前任削减后的水平相比并无任何好转。
Mr Osborne’s pathetic attempt to cast the cuts’ distributional impact in a progressive light was no more believable than it was in June. The truth is that the poor will suffer. Shrinking the debt burden passed on to future generations may be a fair justification. Making well-off pensioners the unrivalled winners by keeping bus passes and TV licences free is not.	奥斯本试图把该计划对分配的影响定为累进式的，这一注定失败的努力并不比他6月份时的 举措更加可信。事实上，遭殃的将是穷人。减轻遗留给未来几代人的债务负担，或许算是个不错的减支理由。但保留养老金领取者的免费公交卡、免费收看电视的福 利，让这一手头宽裕的人群成为最大获益者，可不是个好理由。
And reform? In a stab at supply-side economics, the coalition plans to fold myriad income support schemes into a single benefit with a slow withdrawal rate as recipients’ incomes rise. If it works, this could permanently reduce benefits outlays and boost labour participation. It is a bold move.	那促进改革方面呢？让供给经济学派伤心的是，执政联盟计划将种种收入补助计划纳入单一福利，随着受益人收入的增长，慢慢减少对其的补助。如果这招管用，就能永久性减少福利支出，提高劳动力参与率。此举可真够大胆的。
So, to the point of recklessness, is the vow to “extract the maximum sustainable tax” from financial services. Banks are far from overtaxed but maximum extraction is a principle for highwaymen, not chancellors. It is enough to make one suspect that Mr Osborne actually enjoys inflicting pain.	那么，奥斯本誓言对金融服务机构“征收最大程度可持续税”，就已到了莽撞的程度。虽然银行税负压根儿算不上过重，但“最大程度征收”是劫匪的准则，而不是财长的准则。仅此一项就足以让人怀疑，奥斯本是不是真的以折磨人为乐。
	译者/何黎

U.K. Embraces Austerity

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD And LAURENCE NORMAN

Agence France-Presse

Marchers in London protested Wednesday's U.K. budget cuts that exceeded even Thatcher-era trims.

LONDON—In a bold gambit to tackle its record debt, the British government detailed sweeping spending cuts Wednesday that will hit everyone from welfare recipients to the Queen, positioning the U.K. as a global test case in the argument for choosing austerity over stimulus to repair the economy.

Treasury chief George Osborne detailed the £81 billion ($127 billion) in spending cuts over four years that will help pare a budget deficit of £155 billion. The steep cuts are a gamble that weaning the U.K. off robust public spending will keep lending costs low—and therefore reinvigorate the private sector without undercutting the country's sluggish recovery from the recession and financial crisis.

"Today's the day when Britain steps back from the brink, when we confront the bills from a decade of debt," Mr. Osborne told the U.K. Parliament.

The cuts are expected to spark more of the joblessness and economic pain being felt throughout Europe. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy sent police to clear blockades of refinery workers, whose strikes over a proposed pension overhaul have left nearly half of the country's gas stations dry. In Spain on Wednesday, the austerity push of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero led him to shut down two ministries.

The U.K.'s Mr. Osborne calculated that average cuts to government departments will be 19% over the next four years, rather than the 25% he had previously predicted. That took some wind out of opposition criticism in the U.K. The Labour party has warned of cutting spending too quickly, but even its calculations imply 20% cuts.

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Associated Press

In this image from the House of Commons, British Chancellor George Osborne, center, delivered the Comprehensive Spending Review in London on Wednesday.

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Editors' Deep Dive: Europe Prepares for Austere Times

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• Full Text: Osborne Speech
• Spending Review Documents
• Table: How Each Department Fared
• LIVE: @IAINMARTINWSJ Tweets the Review
• Agenda: Still a Long Way to Go
• Marketbeat: Pound, Gilts Hold Steady
• Cameron Unveils U.K. Defense Cuts
• U.K. Banks Face 'Growing' Tax Hit
• U.K. Public-Sector Borrowing Rises Steeply

But the U.K.'s five-month-old coalition government, led by Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party, will find plenty of opposition to its plan abroad, especially in the U.S. The U.K.'s aggressive spending cuts mark a fiscal policy experiment at a delicate moment for the global economy. Economists have argued for more than a half century about the proper role of government in combating recession. Today, the world's largest economies are going in different directions.

President Barack Obama and his advisers—stocked with the intellectual heirs of British economist John Meynard Keynes, who argued for government deficit spending to replace missing private-sector demand in a downturn—have acknowledged a need for deficit reductions in the long-run. But the U.S. has urged European nations not to rein in their spending too aggressively now, for fear it could tip the global economy back into recession.

Europe has so far ignored the call. Austerity has become the watchword on the continent, from weak economies such as Ireland and Greece to more stable recovering countries like Germany and France.

George Osborne Announces U.K. Spending Cuts

4:20

British chancellor George Osborne confirmed Wednesday that 490,000 public sector jobs were likely to be lost over the next four years amid a raft of other budget cuts. Video Courtesy of Sky News.

Either way, the U.S. looks unlikely to follow the U.K.'s lead. Mr. Obama faces the prospect of reinvigorated congressional opposition after the Nov. 2 elections. Republicans say deficit cutting will be a top priority, but it is unclear they will be able to find common ground with the president, especially on taxes and Medicare spending, which is the biggest long-term driver of U.S. deficits.

Asked in an interview if the U.S. could draw lessons from the U.K. budget, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said: "I think that it would be a mistake for us here in the U.S. to shift too early toward substantial restraint on the fiscal side. Our goal is to lock in a more credible fiscal path over the next three to five years."

Market response to Wednesday's announcements in the U.K. was muted, as the moves have long been telegraphed. Sterling was unmoved and government debt edged only slightly higher, as the announcement removed any uncertainty that the government wouldn't follow through.

But while the U.K.'s deficit-reduction numbers haven't changed since June, the global economic picture has. The U.K.'s two main trading partners—the euro zone and U.S.—have seen deterioration in economic data. The U.S. is plagued by a persistently high unemployment rate, stuck just below 10% all year, and growth at 1.7% in the second quarter, a picture economists don't expect to improve much in the third quarter.

Next year, as more European countries join the U.K. in increased fiscal squeeze, economist expect further fall-off in demand.

Mr. Osborne, the U.K.'s youngest Treasury chief in more than a century, grew hoarse as he announced the annual cuts: a 4% drop in police spending for the next four years; deep cuts in the central government grant to local government, of 7.1% a year in inflation-adjusted terms; a 14% reduction in 2013-14 costs for the Royal Household. Other cuts included a 33% hit to the budget of his own Treasury department.

Mr. Osborne added an extra £7 billion of cuts to the £11 billion already earmarked from a welfare bill, which—including unemployment compensation, worker disability and government retirement benefits—is equivalent to around 14% of the country's gross domestic product. Mr. Osborne also gave warning that Britons will have to work longer, confirming that the state pension age will rise by a year to 66 from 2020.

Mr. Osborne said he is still investing to grow, announcing an annual £2 billion increase in investment in capital projects and saying he would protect the education and science budgets in a bid to spur private growth.

Still, the coalition government's cuts will lead to the loss of 490,000 jobs in the public sector by 2015.

"Cutting government spending in the short run can have substantial costs, even if there are long-run benefits," says Valerie Ramey, an economist and fiscal policy expert at the University of California San Diego. Ms. Ramey studied U.S. defense cutbacks in California in the 1990s, and found it took years for workers affected by the reductions to find new jobs, often at lower wages.

Still, she says, there might be no alternative for the U.K.—or for the U.S. "Not coming to terms with the serious problem which underlies these deficits...is just not sustainable," she says.

Job losses will likely herald a period of industrial unrest in the U.K. Already, in recent weeks, some workers in Britain have mounted short strikes.

"There is anger and frustration," said Peter Lockhart, an official at the Public and Commercial Services Union speaking from a rally outside of Parliament. "Quite clearly we will be gearing our members up to look at some kind of action." As charities began looking through the small print, many began to cry foul about what the cuts to welfare will mean, with £2 billion in savings coming from limiting to one year a benefit that goes to disabled people or those currently too sick to work.

The government will also face a range of accusations, including that it is damaging Britain's important arts industry, weakening the country's armed forces and impairing law enforcement.

"You can't take a fifth off the police budget and not expect there to be some detrimental effect to the communities we serve," says Paul McKeever, a sergeant in London's Metropolitan police service. The Police Federation he chairs estimates that cuts could lead to a loss of as many as 20,000 of the 142,000 officers in England and Wales.

Government departments will now work out what the cuts mean, before returning in a month to publish a four-year business plan."It is a hard road, but it leads to a better future," Mr. Osborne said of the spending cuts. "We are going to bring the years of ever-rising borrowing to an end. We are going to ensure, like every solvent household in the country, that what we buy, we can afford."

—Laurence Norman contributed to this article.

Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com and Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@dowjones.com

Savile Row

1. 2010年10月14日 星期四 節目長度：2分40秒 下載mp3(16k) | (128k) 你能想像成群的綿羊在英國倫敦著名的薩維爾裁縫定制（Savile Row）街啃食青草的情景嗎？這是10月11日英國「薩維爾街牧場日」慶典活動的部分內容，這個活動將持續一周。 為 了慶祝「薩維爾街牧場日」，整個街道的交通被封閉，街面上鋪滿了青草。為了讓人們充分認識羊毛的好處，激發對綿羊的興趣，薩維爾街的臨時牧場被分割成兩部 分，由鮑蒙特（Bowmont）和Exmoor Horn這兩個不同品種的羊群分別使用。牧羊人和牧羊犬在這裡盡職盡責地呵護著他們的羊群。 鮑蒙特（Bowmont）是一種英國產的綿羊，它的毛像蠶絲一樣柔軟纖細，可與澳洲的美利奴羊毛媲美。是製作羊毛內衣的絕佳材料；而Exmoor Horn的羊毛則要粗些，是製作奢華西服的上好材料。 鮑蒙特羊的主人萊斯利．普立爾（Lesley Prior）女士向我們展示她從羊身上剪下的羊毛。【錄音】 :「這是一種非常非常細的羊毛，有非常非常細的褶子，從而使羊毛很細膩，非常軟，非常軟，適合貼身穿著，好漂亮的羊毛啊！」 薩 維爾街是一條裁縫定制街，這裡聚集著很多世界頂級的裁縫，是富賈貴族以及王室成員們樂於光顧的地方。這些奢華服裝定制店也在這一天對公眾開放，遊客們可以 借此機會探秘奢華服裝的製作流程。我們信步走進Huntsman，這是一家有著一百多年歷史的老字號裁縫定制店，總經理彼得．史密斯（Peter Smith）親自接待我們，他介紹說：【錄音】:「客戶選擇他們喜歡的織物，當他們選擇完畢，一個裁縫會來給客戶量身，並記錄下尺寸，然後用紙按照尺寸做 一個模子。」 「薩維爾街牧場日」是查理斯王子宣導的「羊毛運動」的發起日，這個活動的目的是為了推廣英國和英聯邦的羊毛，使它成為奢華西服布料的首選原料。儘管現在已經有越來越多的人認識到了這種純天然纖維的好處，但它的使用率卻呈現下滑的趨勢。 希望之聲國際廣播電台記者顏寧 ，特約記者榮舒英國倫敦報導

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　頂極奢華▲英國歷史悠久的「薩伏伊飯店」（Savoy Hotel）經過近3年整修，10日重新開張，展現頂級奢華風情。　（美聯社）

　英國最老字號的豪華飯店「薩伏伊飯店」（Savoy Hotel）耗資兩億兩千萬英鎊（約新台幣一百億元），費時近三年整修後，終於 在十日重新開張，再度向世人展現無限迷人的奢華風情。

　英國著名喜劇演員兼作家佛萊（Stephen Fry）是第一位入住新薩伏伊的房客，他搭乘勞斯萊斯轎車，來到位於倫敦中區西敏市的薩伏伊，在飯店經理的陪伴之下，走進薩伏伊著名的裝飾藝術（Art Deco）風格大廳。

　薩伏伊建於一八八九年，一百廿多年來都是好萊塢巨星、各國政要、皇親貴戚造訪倫敦的最愛。查理卓別林、勞倫斯奧利佛、法蘭克辛納屈都是常 客。

　英國女王伊莉莎白二世與王夫菲利浦親王首次一起公開亮相，就是在薩伏伊。國父孫中山先生一九一一年（即辛亥年）居留倫敦期間，落腳的飯店 正是薩伏伊。

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英國倫敦首間六星級酒店The Savoy完成翻新後，周日正式重開，英國名嘴男星Stephen Fry成為首名入住的賓客。 The Savoy建於1889年，住客包括德國已故女星瑪蓮德烈治（ Marlene Dietrich），及法國印象派大師莫奈（ Claude Monet）。 至07年斥資2.2億英鎊（ 27億港元）大 ...

U.K. to Make Prisoners Work, Paying Victims

U.K. to Make Prisoners Work, Paying Victims

In a move designed to appeal to the U.K. Conservative Party's grass-roots members, Justice Secretary Clarke is set to announce plans to force prisoners to work and earn money to compensate victims.

Disease ravaging oak trees 'could be worse for UK than Dutch elm'

Last updated at 2:51 PM on 19th May 2010

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A 'very serious' new disease is killing native oak trees across a wide swathe of Britain. Experts have warned could alter the British landscape more than Dutch elm disease.

The Forestry Commission said the condition acute oak decline (AOD) is hitting both native species of oak, which show black bleeding on the trunks and stems.

The trees can suffer rapid dieback and death within three to five years, experts are warning.

Acute Oak Decline causes black bleeding on the trunks and stems on affected trees (as shown)

The practice note from the Forestry Commission, whose research arm Forest Research recently identified bacteria thought to be involved in the disease, is urging woodland managers to be vigilant about the health of their oak trees.

Roddie Burgess, head of the Forestry Commission's plant health service, said: 'It's one where I think they need to take this very seriously.

'We tend to be cautious about what might be seen as scare-mongering, but the signs here are that we are dealing with something that has the markings that it could become something very serious indeed.'

He added: 'We've 200 million oaks in the UK, so if this thing did really take off in the same way as Dutch elm disease, the impact on the landscape and biodiversity would be very significant.'

An oak tree in all its glory. Experts have warned a new disease could devastate the English tree

Woodland owners and managers are being encouraged to inform visitors and walkers in woods if trees are suffering from acute oak decline and give advice on how they can help prevent its spread.

The Forestry Commission suggests notices should be put up advising the public not to touch infected trees or remove wood from the area, and to clean walking shoes and bicycle tyres used in infected areas before going to places which are disease-free.

According to the Forestry Commission, cases of acute oak decline should be monitored and reported, but generally the infected trees should be left in place unless there is immediate concern about safety - such as branches falling.

But the commission suggests that if there are only a few trees infected - and they are mostly the same oak species - it might be worth felling and destroying the diseased trees.

It also stresses the importance of limiting access to infected trees, disinfecting boots, vehicle wheels, machinery and equipment to help prevent the spread of the disease.

Forest Research is continuing to investigate the disease, which has infected hundreds of trees across the Midlands and Wales, to get a better understanding of it and how it spreads.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1279628/Disease-ravaging-oak-trees-worse-UK-Dutch-elm.html#ixzz11RNhPhVZ

1 October 2010 Last updated at 06:57 GMT

New equality rights in workplace come into force

"Everyone is protected by the new law," says the Equality and Human Rights Commission

New rules aimed at banning discrimination by employers, covering areas such as age, disability and pay, have come into force.

The Equality Act covers many workplace areas and draws nine separate pieces of legislation into a single Act.

Equalities Minister Theresa May says it will now be easier for firms to comply with anti-discrimination rules.

However, some business groups argued the new legislation will impose a heavy burden on employers.

The new law applies in England, Wales and Scotland.

Continue reading the main story

Related stories

• Did they really make a difference?

'Challenging times'

The new law restricts the circumstances in which employers can ask job applicants questions about disability or health prior to offering them a position, making it more difficult for disabled people to be unfairly screened out.

"In these challenging economic times it's more important than ever for employers to make the most of all the talent available," said Ms May.

There are also new powers for employment tribunals.

The Act will also stop employers using pay secrecy clauses to prevent employees discussing their own pay, which means men and women can compare pay.

But the Act will not make employers reveal how much they pay men compared with women, as had been planned by the Labour government.

Some campaigners argued that this revision undermined the new legislation.

"Rowing back on the requirement for big business to publish and take action on any differences in pay between men and women employees is tantamount to endorsing the shocking gender pay gap," said Ceri Goddard, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality.

Employees will also now be able to file discrimination claims on two grounds, rather than one. For example, under the previous rules, a woman from an ethnic minority could not file a claim on counts of both gender and race discrimination - an employment tribunal would have to consider the claims separately.

Under the new rules, an employee can file claims on two counts, but no more.

Business cost

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said: "Everyone is protected by the new law.

"It [the Act] covers age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex (meaning gender) and sexual orientation.

"Under the act people are not allowed to discriminate, harass or victimise another person because they belong to a group that the Act protects, they are thought to belong to one of those groups or are associated with someone who does."

But some business groups argued that the new rules place an extra burden on companies at a time when they are still trying to recover from the recession.

"Businesses are really concerned," Abigail Morris from the British Chambers of Commerce told the BBC.

"The government's own impact assessment shows that this is going to cost £190m just for businesses to understand the legislation, and this at a time when we really need them to be concentrating on creating private sector jobs and driving economic recovery."

During the summer there were some concerns about the new rules expressed by shipping companies.

Some claimed the laws could force them to quit the UK because they would have to pay UK rates to foreign-based seafarers who do not have the burden of British living costs.

Are you an employer? How will the new legislation affect you? Have you faced discrimination in the workplace in areas such as age, disability and pay? Send us your comments using the form below:

1 October 2010 Last updated at 07:22 GMT

BMA critical of health service shake-up

By Nick Triggle Health reporter, BBC News

An overhaul of the NHS was announced in July

The forthcoming shake-up of the NHS in England could undermine its "stability and future", doctors' leaders say.

The British Medical Association warning sparks the start of what promises to be a delicate balancing act for ministers.

The government set out plans in July to give GPs control of much of the budget, while scrapping two tiers of managers.

The BMA said it was not against the whole vision, but it had "fundamental" concerns. The government says the changes will help improve the service.

Continue reading the main story

Related stories

• Q&A: The NHS shake-up
• NHS 'to undergo radical overhaul'

The union's criticisms - made in its official response to July's White Paper - contrast with its initial response over the summer when it said it was "ready, willing and able".

And they come as the government faces a legal challenge from the union Unison.

The public sector union is seeking a judicial review over the way the government is handling the changes.

The official consultation period will end later this month, after which ministers are likely to start formal talks with BMA negotiators about implementing the changes.

The government wants to start piloting the GP consortiums, which will take charge of the budget from the soon-to-be abolished primary care trusts, this financial year. Full roll-out will follow within two years.

But it is this pace of change which is one of the problems, according to the BMA.

Continue reading the main story

The key NHS changes

• GPs - Asked to get together in groups to take on responsibility for spending much of the NHS budget
• Hospitals - Encouraged to move outside the NHS to become "vibrant" industry of social enterprises
• Patients - More information and choice, including ability to register with any GP they want to
• Managers - Strategic health authorities and primary care trusts facing the axe

It said the timetable could threaten the £20bn savings the health service has to make by 2014.

The BMA also took issue with the "obsession" with competition, saying GPs would be set against hospitals - one of the objectives of the changes is to get more care done more cheaply outside hospitals.

Private sector

Many doctors also fear the plans will lead to the increased involvement of the private sector - and ultimately damage the doctor-patient relationship as the public could start viewing their own GPs as rationers of services.

The BMA said there needed to be a clear distinction between individual GPs and the consortiums.

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the BMA's GPs committee, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his organisation had "serious concerns".

Continue reading the main story

Analysis: Does it matter what the BMA thinks?

The BMA is probably one of the most powerful unions.

But it has carefully positioned itself above the normal rough and tumble of the labour movement.

In fact, it is just as likely to throw its weight around in debates about drinking and science as it is over pay and conditions.

And with close links to influential voices across the political spectrum, it has a significant powerbase.

But that does not mean it has a veto on these changes.

While the government is likely to seek formal talks soon, ministers could force through the plans if they wished.

Of course, that would create resentment within the profession and for the reforms to work the government needs doctors on side.

Instead, expect a long and drawn-out period of negotiations, claim and counter-claim with today's intervention just the start.

He added: "Patients want to see their doctors and other healthcare professionals, in general practice and in hospitals, collaborating with one another - not competing with one another."

BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum said that there "were proposals in the White Paper that doctors can support and want to work with".

He added: "But there is also much that would be potentially damaging.

"The BMA has consistently argued that clinicians should have more autonomy to shape services for their patients, but pitting them against each other in a market-based system creates waste, bureaucracy and inefficiency."

However, some doctors remain supportive of the planned changes, such as Dr Simon Brown, of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, who is taking part in one of the pilot schemes.

He told BBC Breakfast that control of the NHS's budget and purchasing decisions would benefit from the "clinical input" that doctors bring, something he said "had been largely absent until now".

Dr Brown added: "I'm confident that actually we can introduce some changes that will make a very positive impact on my patients."

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: "This backs up Labour's warnings since the White Paper was published."

And Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, a health think tank, suggested the BMA was right to highlight some of the issues.

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Andrew Lansley: 'This is a real opportunity'

"I think there is quite a lot of worry in the health service that these changes are too much too fast," she said.

"The principle of giving GPs, or doctors, budgets to manage is a quite good one, I think there is a lot of agreement about that.

"But the speed at which these changes are occurring - the fact that £70bn of public funds is going to be given to practices who are not used to handling this amount of money - is, I think, worrying."

Making care 'better'

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley played down the criticisms.

"There are many GPs across the country who are keen to make the transition quickly, others want to know more about how it's going to work before they implement it," he said.

"This is what the consultation process is about, everyone coming forward to say how can we make this work."

He added that the plans were aimed at making care better for patients.

Are you a GP? Do you share the conerns that the BMA has over changes to the NHS in England? Send us your comments using the form below: