Non-PRO английский => русский Искусство/Литература Государство / Политика contextual phrase

Has this been a term of endearment?
Tony Blair’s government has made history. What it has yet to demonstrate is the capacity to change the country’s destiny.
A week is a long time in politics; 48 months is an eternity. Four years ago this Wednesday, Tony Blair stood before the black door on his sundappled first day in office. ‘Enough of talking’, said the man of action. ‘It is time now to do’. ‘Strip off the hype which has gushed from Number 10 ever since; blow away the froth of daily headlines. How has his government actually done? Let us try, as clinically as possible, to assess the performance of New Labour.
The starter test of any government, I would suggest, is that it is reasonably accomplished at governing (начальный критерий какой-либо формы правления, по моему предположению, заключается в достижении ею достаточно больших успехов в управлении страной). This sounds an undemanding hurdle, but it is a first fence many previous governments have failed to surmount (Это кажется нетрудным препятствием, но это первая преграда, которую многим руководствам прошлых лет не удалось преодолеть). The Blair government has made serious, self-inflicted mistakes – the Millennium Dome blasts them still. The unexpected has come close to blowing them over. Foot and mouth has not been – I am being charitable – a textbook example of how to handle an emergency. The Government (власти) teetered on the lip of the abyss during last autumn’s fuel protests. It is natural that we should curse their blunders more than we offer credit for the mistakes they have avoided. But the Blair government has eschewed perpetrating any spectacular errors.
The novices to red boxes (новички,“сидящие” в правительстве) who took office four years ago have broadly run a competent government. Its life (его работу) has been punctuated by crises (прерывали переломные моменты в жизни общества), which have been invariably generated not by dissident backbenchers (которые были вызваны не разногласиями среди рядовых членов парламента) or off-message Ministers, but erupted from the inner core of the regime (были причиной внезапных сбоев в самом центре механизма власти). There have been gripping soap operas, none more so than the double resignations of Peter Mandelson. But the damage done has been to the actors, not to the country at large. There has not been the economic calamity (хозяйственное бедствие) or civil crisis (гражданский переворот) which destroys governments (подрывают власть) and wrecks countries (нарушают порядок внутри страны).
The Blair government has not inflicted upon us a Suez, a Three day week or a Winter of Discontent. There has not been the vicious social conflict of the inner-city riots and the miners’ strike in the Eighties. There has not been anything approaching the ruinousness of Thatcher’s poll tax or Major’s Black Wednesday. Just by being reasonably adept at ruling, the Blair administration is lifted above the average run of postwar governments.
The next test of any government is whether it has been true to its promises. Generally, the so-distant People’s Prime Minister has fulfilled the rather low expectations the people had of him. Blair was elected on a paradoxical prospectus. The subtext of his campaign was: everything is appalling; we will change it very slowly. The Conservatives may have left office in May 1997, but their term of power did not properly end until just two years ago, when Gordon Brown finally released the Government from the Tory spending corset. Transformed schools and hospitals await realization. If not delivered in the second term, the punishment of the electorate may be terrible.
Blair’s most reckless pledge was to restore faith in public life (вернуть доверие в обществе к проводимой партией политике). Back on May Day 1997, even the most cynical observer did not anticipate they would have quite so much sleaze in them. In other respects, this government has delivered more than it promised. The last manifesto pledged nothing about child benefit – it has actually risen by 25 per cent. They did not claim to be able to create full employment, yet they have achieved that historic goal of Labour.
Any set of rulers with an eye on claiming a large place in posterity must aspire to be more than competent deliverers. The superior rank of government is occupied by those which make changes lasting beyond their lifetime. It is not conceivable that the Conservatives could unravel devolution to Scotland and Wales, an aspiration of progressive governments dating back to Gladstone.
One of the ironies of Blair is that, for all his relentless emphasis on the modern, his bigger achievements have been based on ambition set by long-dead predecessors. A settlement in Ireland has eluded every premier since the nineteenth century. The minimum wage was a Labour goal when Keir Hardie founded the party. The Tories have been compelled to accept it, just as they have been forced to support independence for the Bank of England. This government could come to a full stop (прекратить свою работу) today – and would leave enduring legacies.
There are other elements of the Blair record (досье) which the Right accepts because they are as amazed as many on the Left are disgusted that they have been enacted by a Labour government.
Which takes us to my next test of a government: has it permanently altered the framework of political choice? The verdict here is mixed (общественное мнение в данном вопросе разнородно). With a little help from the grisly pantomime that is William Hague’s Conservative Party, New Labour commands the centre ground and swathes of territory on both flanks. Harold Wilson’s unrequited dream of making Labour ‘the natural party of government’ is closer to realization by Tony Blair than under any previous Labour Prime Minister.
But he has achieved it more by following the consensus than by challenging the status quo. His government has pandered to illiberability more often than it has confronted prejudice. It has become a little less bashful about making the case for the active state and a fairer society, but remains coy of full candour (но пока не решается проводить открытую политику).
Since the Third Way was giggled to death, it has become ever clearer that it is a government which moves by inches rather than by leaps. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that: small steps, provided there are enough of them, can take you on a long journey.
Baby bonds are an eyecatching device to give the poor an asset stake in society. But this is the safest sort of radicalism. The first beneficiaries of the scheme will not come into possession of their modest endowments (скромные взносы) until Mr. Blair is eligible for pension. He, Gordon Brown, David Blunkett and Alistair Darling, with the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Fabian Society, all claim paternity over baby bonds. When one good notion has to be spread around four Cabinet Ministers and two think tanks, it tells us that New Labour is not bursting with bold and innovatory ideas.
This brings me to the last and most demanding test (самое трудное испытание). The outstanding governments are those which alter the country’s destiny. The project to secure the exclusion of the Conservatives from power for a generation has withered as Blair’s enthusiasm for changing the Westminster voting system has shriveled. In terms of the private goals he set for his premiership, the most evident failure has been Europe. Towards Europe as a whole, and towards the single currency especially, public opinion is more aggressively hostile than ever.
The greatest wrangling between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor about the next manifesto is not over what it says about tax, but about the warmth of the phraseology towards the single currency. The fiercest struggle about that is within Mr. Blair himself. Will he hedge his self-perceived destiny with deadening qualifications or will he articulate the belief that his epochal role is to make Britain engaged partner in Europe?