来源：《每日电讯报》
原文刊登日期：2023年5月23日
Economic growth might be turning out marginally better than expected – if you believe the latest notoriously unreliable forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, that is – but the public finances are in an undeniably dreadful state. Public sector borrowing in April was £25.6 billion, almost £12 billion more than last year. It was the second highest April borrowing figure since monthly records began, according to the Office for National Statistics.
如果你相信国际货币基金组织最新出了名的不可靠预测，那么经济增长可能会比预期略微好一些，但公共财政状况无疑非常糟糕。公共部门4月份的借款为256亿英镑，比去年增加了近120亿英镑。英国国家统计局的数据显示，这是自有月度记录以来，英国4月份的借款数量第二高的年份。
It blamed rising debt interest payments, the costs of the energy support package, but also increases in benefit payments. Indeed, the socialist refrain that the Government is motivated by cruelty towards people on welfare is the precise opposite of the truth. Benefits are going up in line with inflation, unlike wages in the private sector. It would not be surprising if it was the people who are actually going out to work for a living who felt hard done by, particularly given the scale of the tax burden.
政府将其归咎于不断上升的债务利息支付、能源支持计划的成本，以及福利支付的增加。社会主义者认为政府的动机是残忍地对待领取福利的人，这与事实恰恰相反。与私营部门的工资停滞不同，福利与通胀同步上涨。如果是那些真正外出工作谋生的人感到受到了不公平对待，尤其是考虑到税负的规模，那也不足为奇。
Millions of working age people now languish on welfare. Companies complain of labour shortages, and the immigration figures this week are expected to show record net migration into the UK, but the Government shows little appetite for doing anything serious about getting British people back into full-time employment.
数百万处于工作年龄的人现在靠福利过活。公司抱怨劳动力短缺，本周的移民数据预计将显示进入英国的净移民人数创下历史新高，但政府对让英国人重返全职工作几乎没有兴趣。
Is it because it thinks the problem is too difficult? It would, for example, involve confronting the rise in the numbers claiming they are unable to work because of poor mental health. Some have speculated that this is, in part, a consequence of the lockdowns, and the campaign of fear unleashed on the population by ministers. It would also involve completing the reforms to benefits policy that Iain Duncan Smith pioneered as welfare secretary.
是因为政府认为这个问题太难了吗？例如，这将涉及到面对越来越多的人声称他们因心理健康状况不佳而无法工作。一些人猜测，这在一定程度上是封城和内阁部长们对民众发动的恐惧运动的结果。这还将涉及完成伊恩·邓肯·史密斯担任福利大臣时率先推行的福利政策改革。
In advance of Thursday’s migration release, the Government has announced that it is tightening the rules on international students, preventing most of them from bringing in family members. That is positive as far as it goes, largely closing a loophole that was allowing in thousands of people a year for little discernible benefit to Britain.
在周四的移民数据发布之前，政府宣布将收紧对国际学生的规定，阻止他们中的大多数人携带家人入境。就目前而言，这是积极的，在很大程度上填补了一个漏洞，这个漏洞每年允许成千上万的学生家属进入英国，但这些人的到来对英国几乎没有明显的好处。
But there will be no sustainable solution to the broader issue of surging migration without big changes to domestic policy, particularly welfare. The status quo is not just expensive, but unkind. There is nothing good or moral about abandoning people to a life of inactivity and dependence on the state.
但是，如果不对国内政策(尤其是福利政策)进行重大改革，就不会有解决移民激增这一更广泛问题的可持续解决方案。现状不仅代价高昂，而且不厚道。让人们过一种无所事事、依赖国家的生活，既不善良，也不道德。