Welcome to Britain. Our Weather Is Appalling.

歡迎移民英國，天氣不是問題

SARAH LYALL 報道 2013年01月31日

Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

去年在英國女王登基60周年慶典上的皇室支持者。

 百年戰爭(The 100 Years』 War)實際上持續了116年。啞劇中的滑稽老太婆往往是男扮女裝的。氣墊船是克里斯托弗·科克雷爾爵士(Sir Christopher Cockerell)發明的。約克大教堂有着非常精美的彩色玻璃窗。瑪格麗特·撒切爾(Margaret Thatcher)成功地馴服了工會，並通過放開對金融市場的管制，把倫敦變成了一個強大的國際金融中心。
你可以在《英國生活：新居民指南》(Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents)中找到此類有趣的點滴信息。這是一本由保守黨領導的政府出版的修訂版指南，從今年3月開始，其內容將構成修改後的英國移民考試的基 礎。為了通過考試，想要獲得英國國籍、或英國永久居留權的申請人必須正確回答24道考題中的18道。

從政府發佈的樣題看，這項考試可能會相對容易。不過，這本充斥着各類信息的指南反映了保守黨的觀點，即有太多的人正努力移民到英國，而一旦到了這裡，他們卻不能正確認識這個國家。
英國移民部長馬克·哈珀(Mark Harper)上周末說，「新版指南和考試將聚焦於為英國的偉大做出貢獻的事件和人物上。」
宣布新版指南出爐時，哈珀特地批評了工黨(Labour Party)政府2007年發佈的舊版指南《英國生活：入籍之路》(Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship)。
工黨版的指南包含了一些英國歷史，不過它傾向於更多地關注英國當前的實際事務，而不是歷史上的輝煌。（而且，出於它的黨派偏見，指南說撒切爾夫人是一個「導致分歧的人物」，她的政策可能「導致了英國工業的大幅衰退」）。
哈珀說，「新版指南正確地把重點放在身為英國人的核心價值和原則上。」提到舊版指南時，他說，「我們刪去了關於水表、如何查詢列車時刻表、以及如何使用互聯網的日常瑣碎信息。」
的確，工黨版指南里有一章題為《日常需要》(Everyday Needs)，針對各種問題提供建議，比如如果你感到身體不適該怎麼辦（「打電話給你的家庭醫生」是可能性之一）；如何租一個房子；以及如何以最得體的方 式表述「垃圾」（這有些怪異），指南解釋說，「Refuse也被稱作waste，或rubbish。（這幾個詞在英語里都有垃圾的意思——譯註）」
反對歐洲一體化、反對移民的英國獨立黨(UK Independence Party)的歐洲議會(European Parliament)議員羅傑·赫爾默(Roger Helmer)說，是時候讓舊版指南退休了。
赫爾默在接受採訪時表示，「他們刪掉了大量涉及新工黨(New Labour)成就的陳述，這是一件大好事。」
但是移民權益網絡(Migrants』 Rights Network)主任唐·弗林(Don Flynn)說，新版指南宣揚一種對英國文化和歷史自命不凡、過時、高高在上的態度。他特別指出，題為「悠久而輝煌的歷史」的歷史章節格外令人反感，這一 章的第一頁描述了特拉法加海戰(Battle of Trafalgar)中驚心動魄的一幕。
這一章對一些爭議問題一筆帶過。例如，在談到20世紀大英帝國往往血腥、往往留下創傷的解體過程時，該書輕快地說，這「基本上是一個有序的從帝國到英聯邦的轉型，各國被授予獨立地位」。
正如《衛報》(The Guardian)所指出的，「它絲毫沒有提到1947年印巴分治時，英國的撤退導致大約100萬或更多的人死於派系及宗教暴力。」
英國一直積極地想方設法收緊入境限制。英國新聞媒體最近報道，英國政府擔心，明年依照歐盟條約解除針對保加利亞人和羅馬尼亞人在英生活和工作的限制後，會有大量不合適的人湧入，為此英國政府正考慮投放廣告，指出英國的種種壞處，比如氣候。
內政部(Home Office)的一位發言人沒有否認這些報道，但表示官員們「正與別的政府部門緊密合作，看看我們有哪些吸引人之處會鼓勵歐盟公民來英國，包括那些來自保加利亞和羅馬尼亞的人。」
英國獨立黨的赫爾默對政府的態度嗤之以鼻。
「他們不爽快地說，『我們只想要這些人中的500人入境』，」他說，他隨便說了一個數字，指的是羅馬尼亞人和保加利亞人，「而是不得不發動一場廣告宣傳，說英國下雨。天哪，這有多荒謬！」
入籍指南竭盡全力宣傳政府心目中英國的最佳素質（下雨不算在內）。該書驕傲地談到偉大的國王、偉大的成就以及偉大的首相，與英國去年在夏季奧運會開幕式上展示的怪異、創新、非軍事的令人喜愛的形象格格不入。
工黨議員、議會內政事務委員會(Home Affairs Committee)主席基思·瓦斯(Keith Vaz)說，保守黨人在製作入籍指南時採取了「一種非常奇怪的方法」，他質疑道，由一個政府部門單方面決定如何對外陳述英國的歷史，這麼做是否正確。
他在接受採訪時說，「這種書最好讓不參與黨派政治的人來寫。」

翻譯：曹莉、張薇 

 

 

London Journal

Welcome to Britain. Our Weather Is Appalling.

By SARAH LYALL January 31, 2013

 

LONDON — The 100 Years’ War actually lasted 116 years. Pantomime dames tend to be men dressed as women. The hovercraft was invented by Sir Christopher Cockerell. York Minster has very nice stained-glass windows. Margaret Thatcher successfully tamed the unions and turned London into a powerful international financial center by deregulating the financial markets.
These and other interesting pieces of information can be found in “Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents,” a revised book issued by the Conservative-led government that, starting in March, will form the basis of the country’s revised immigration test. To pass, applicants who want to become citizens or live here permanently will have to answer 18 of 24 questions correctly.

Judging from the sample questions released by the government, the test may end up being relatively easy. But the guidebook, crammed with information, reflects the Conservative view that too many people are trying to immigrate to Britain, and that once they arrive they are failing to appreciate the country properly.
“The new book and test will focus on events and people who have contributed to making Britain great,” Mark Harper, the immigration minister, said last weekend.
In announcing the revised guidebook, Mr. Harper went out of his way to criticize the old one, “Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship,” which was issued by the rival Labour government in 2007.
While it includes some history, the Labour version tends to concentrate less on the excitements of the British past than on the practicalities of the British present. (Plus, in its own partisan contribution, it says that Mrs. Thatcher was a “divisive figure” whose policies might have “caused a massive decline in industry.”)
“The new book rightly focuses on values and principles at the heart of being British,” Mr. Harper said. Referring to the old book, he said, “We’ve stripped out mundane information about water meters, how to find train timetables and using the Internet.”
Indeed, a chapter called “Everyday Needs” in the old Labour version gives advice on things like what to do if you feel sick (“call your G.P.,” is one possibility); how to rent a house; and, weirdly, how best to refer to garbage. “Refuse is also called waste, or rubbish,” it explains.
Roger Helmer, a member of the European Parliament from the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe U.K. Independence Party, said it was about time the old manual was retired.
“They’ve taken out a lot of references to New Labour achievements, which is a jolly good thing,” Mr. Helmer said in an interview.
But Don Flynn, director of the Migrants’ Rights Network, an interest group, said the new version propagated a snobby, atavistic, superior approach to British culture and history. He singled out as particularly objectionable the historical chapter, called “A Long and Illustrious History,” whose first page depicts a rousing scene from the Battle of Trafalgar.
The chapter sometimes skates shallowly over contentious issues. Discussing the often bloody, often traumatic shedding of the component parts of the British Empire in the 20th century, for instance, it says happily that there was, “for the most part, an orderly transition from empire to commonwealth, with countries being granted their independence.”
As The Guardian pointed out, “There is no mention of the million or more people who died in communal and religious violence at Britain’s withdrawal during the 1947 partition of India.”
Britain is actively trying to find ways to tighten its borders. The British news media reported recently that the government, terrified that the lifting next year of European Union restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians living and working here would result in an influx of unwanted people, is considering an advertising campaign pointing out Britain’s bad qualities, like its climate.
A spokesman for the Home Office did not deny the reports, but said that officials “are working closely with other government departments to look at the pull factors that may encourage E.U. nationals, including those from Bulgaria and Romania, to come to the U.K.”
Mr. Helmer of the U.K. Independence Party scoffed at the government’s attitude.
“Rather than simply say, ‘We only want 500 of those people coming in,’ ” he said, choosing a random number and referring to Romanians and Bulgarians, “we have to run an ad campaign saying that it rains in Britain. For heaven’s sake, how ridiculous is that?”
The guidebook does its best to promote what the government considers Britain’s best qualities (rain is not among them). But filled as it is with proud references to great kings, great achievements and great prime ministers, it is strangely at odds with the quirky, creative, nonmilitary image Britain presented of itself at last summer’s ecstatic and much-loved Olympics opening ceremony.
Keith Vaz, a Labour member of Parliament who is chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, said the Conservatives had taken “a very odd approach” to their guidebook and questioned whether it was right that a government department should unilaterally get to decide how to present British history to the outside world.
“This is the kind of work that is best written by people who are not party political,” he said in an interview.