布朗宣佈將辭職 以促工黨與自民黨組閣

【英文原文】

Brown To Resign, As Confusion Reigns In UK
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he will step down within months as leader of the country and his party, but the U.K's confused political landscape was thrown into further chaos as his Labour Party began talks to form a government despite finishing second in last week's inconclusive election.

Mr. Brown's announcement, delivered outside No. 10 Downing St., was the centerpiece of a day of high political drama in which the U.K.'s Labour and Conservative parties engaged in an aggressive and public tug-of-war for the support of the country's No. 3 party, the Liberal Democrats.

Mr. Brown's move to step aside was packaged with his announcement that Labour has entered formal talks on a power-sharing coalition with the Liberal Democrats and their leader, Nick Clegg.

In essence, he offered himself as a sacrifice whose timing was tactically designed to both bolster Labour's improbable attempt to stay in power and block the rival Tories from taking control of Britain's government. Many senior members of the Liberal Democrats had made it clear that they would be less inclined to a deal with a Labour Party still led by Mr. Brown.

Having won the most seats -- but not a majority -- in last week's vote, the Conservatives and leader David Cameron have spent the past few days attempting to forge an agreement in which they would run the country in a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, a party with which it shares little common ground on key issues.

After Mr. Brown made his move, the Conservatives threw down the gauntlet to the Liberal Democrats, making a fresh and seemingly final offer to Mr. Clegg's team. Senior Tory official William Hague said the Conservatives would offer a referendum to overhaul the U.K.'s voting system, a key issue for the Liberal Democrats that is strongly resisted by many Conservatives.

The resulting picture of increasing political uncertainty quickly rattled

【中文譯文】

英國首相布朗(Gordon Brown)說，他將在幾個月內辭去首相和工黨領袖的職務。儘管工黨在上週的非決定性選舉中位列第二，卻開始就組建政府進行談判，英國動盪的政局隨之被拋入更加混亂的局面。

布朗是在唐寧街10號首相府外宣佈將辭職的消息的。他的聲明成爲政治形勢頗具戲劇性的一天中的焦點；在這一天中，工黨和保守黨陷入激烈的公開爭奪戰，雙方都在爭取獲得英國第三大政黨自由民主黨的支持。

布朗宣佈辭職的同時，還宣佈了工黨已經與自由民主黨及其領袖克萊格(Nick Clegg)就分權聯盟進入正式談判。

實際上，他把自己作爲了犧牲品，這一巧妙選擇的時機是爲了提振工黨不可能實現的繼續執政的努力，同時阻撓對手保守黨掌權。自由民主黨的很多高級成員明確表示，他們不太願意與仍由布朗領導的工黨達成協議。

保守黨在上週的投票中獲得了最多席位，但不是多數席位。該黨及其領袖卡梅倫(David Cameron)過去幾天一直在試圖與自由民主黨達成協議；根據協議，保守黨將與和其在關鍵問題上立場很少相同的自由民主黨組成聯合政府。

在布朗做出即將辭職的聲明後，保守黨向自由民主黨提出一個全新的、看起來也是最後的提議。保守黨高級官員海格(William Hague)說，保守黨將提議進行一場全民投票，以便改革英國的投票制度，這對自由民主黨來說是一個關鍵問題，不過很多保守黨人都對此強烈反對。

不斷加劇的政治不確定性迅速動搖了市場，英鎊和英國國債在布朗的辭職聲明後雙雙下跌。