2015年经济学人 英国政治 时钟停摆

（单词翻译）

Politics

Winding¹ down

Over a year before the general election, Parliament is already clocking off

PARLIAMENT feels different from usual. The lobbies and corridors are quieter.

The queues in the canteens are shorter. Records of internet activity in the Palace of Westminster show that monthly visits to YouTube have overtaken those to Parliament's information pages.

Visits to cricket websites are up, too. The division bells still ring in MPs' offices to announce votes and the wood-panelled committee rooms are still busy—but debates tend to be on independent (and sometimes eccentric) initiatives by MPs rather than on government bills.

Each seems to be doing his own thing.

Britain's Parliament normally stands out for its raucous² debates, its might and its bustle³. Unlike America's Congress, it is not prone⁴ to long spells of deadlock⁵; unlike France's National Assembly,

it is not subordinate to a monarch-like president; unlike the German Bundestag, regional legislatures do not dilute⁶ its power.

And not long ago it was a whirlwind of activity. In the 2010-12 session the Conservative-Liberal Democrat⁷ coalition⁸ passed 42 bills overhauling⁹ the national finances and most major public services.

But last year's Queen's Speech introduced just 15 bills, several of them minor¹⁰.

With seven weeks left in the parliamentary year, MPs have passed only 801 pages of government legislation

(excluding money-raising measures and bills mostly debated in the last session).

Even in the unusually short 2012-13 session they managed more than twice as much.

Thirteen months before the next general election, the legislative¹¹ motor is spluttering.

Why? “They passed a hell of a lot of legislation in early sessions, much more so than Blair or Thatcher¹²,”

explains Peter Riddell of the Institute for Government.

So the government soon ran out of policies that both sides of the coalition found acceptable.

It is now stuck. Having fixed¹³ the parliamentary term at five years, it must sit out the remaining months.

Amid the torpor¹⁴, minds are turning to the election. “A year ago all the conversations were about policy;

now it is positioning and campaigning,” observes one MP.

Those with swing seats, particularly Lib Dems who need to overcome their party's poor polling, are using the quiet time to woo constituents¹⁵.

Some spend as little as a day a week in Westminster.

Other MPs are away from Parliament for different reasons. For those with comfortable majorities, foreign junkets and media careers beckon¹⁶.

“I've never had more time to write,”chuckles one. So occupied are some MPs with their second jobs that Andrew Lansley,

the leader of the House of Commons, is said to have reminded them that their first duty is to their voters.

Scottish MPs have a less cushy distraction¹⁷: canvassing¹⁸ voters ahead of the referendum on independence, which will take place in September.

Those left in Westminster spend their time on three main things. One is scrutiny¹⁹.

Since 2010 select committees have been elected by MPs rather than by party bosses. That has enlivened them.

They are busy holding the government to account and, in the case of the Consolidation²⁰ Bills committee, tidying up outdated²¹ legislation.

One recent victim was a series of 19th-century laws governing the railways in Imperial India.

“The romantic in me was rather sad to see them go,” says Robert Buckland, one of its members.

Others pursue idiosyncratic political campaigns. Peter Bone, an outspoken²² Tory,

is trying to rename the August Bank Holiday after Margaret Thatcher.

Other campaigns concern bread-and-butter matters like household bills and consumer rights.

Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP for Harlow, a blue-collar town in Essex, is especially prolific²³.

His Additional Charges for Utility Bills Not Paid by Direct Debit²⁴ (Limits) Bill awaits its second reading.

In the lobbies and tearooms these campaigning MPs seek their colleagues' support for such private members' bills,

Early Day Motions (short written declarations) and backbench debates.

Other parliamentarians are busy agitating²⁵ within their parties.

Pressure groups of MPs are becoming more vocal²⁶, and new ones like Renewal²⁷

(a campaign for working-class Conservatism) and One Nation (a gang of young Labour MPs) have sprung up.

Some of these publish reports and papers, others host guest speakers.

“Every five minutes there is another bloody²⁸ supper club,” groans²⁹ one MP in a marginal seat.

These gatherings³¹ mostly serve as networking opportunities.

More troublingly, for party leaders, they are also perfect places for idle hands to make trouble:

for leadership pretenders to peacock and for disgruntled MPs to plot and scheme.

Tory backbenchers have taken to gathering³⁰ signatures on letters grousing³² about government policy.

The depth of Westminster's legislative lull³³ may be unusual, but it is not entirely³⁴ new.

In the 1850s the Spectator, a news magazine, reported that Parliament was so quiet “you may hear a bill drop.”

In the 18th century MPs could talk for as long as they liked—and often did—as their colleagues ate oranges and cracked nuts.

Something for MPs to ponder, in between doing not very much.