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李武军 发表于 2011-6-20 12:39

New British Prime Minister 英国的新首相

[audio]http://file.24en.com/bbc/tae/assets_4497396/tae_264_new_prime_minister_au_bb.mp3[/audio]
[color=#3f3f3f][font=Verdana, 宋体, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=12px][p=21, 2, left]After days of [b]political horse-trading[/b] the UK finally has a new government and a new Prime Minister, following the [b]resignation[/b] of [b]Labour[/b]'s Gordon Brown on Tuesday evening.[/p][p=21, 2, left]Since last Thursday's [b]general election[/b] resulted in a [b]hung parliament[/b], a situation in which none of the [b]political parties[/b] has an [b]overall majority[/b], British politicians have been attempting to form a [b]coalition government[/b].[/p][p=21, 2, left]Such a government is [b]comparatively rare[/b] in the UK. Indeed this is the first coalition since the Second World War.[/p][float=right][img=226,170]http://www.24en.com/d/file/bbc/bbc2/2010-05-13/15522bb34fbdbed02d824f450f88a256.jpg[/img][p=30, 2, left]The Queen invites the new PM to form a government[/p][/float]

[p=21, 2, left]So how did it happen?[/p][p=21, 2, left]Last week's general election saw the [b]public vote[/b] split amongst the political parties in such a way that no party achieved the 326 [b]seats[/b]required to gain a majority and therefore form a government.[/p][p=21, 2, left]This situation is known as a hung parliament, and means that two or more of the opposing parties have to [b]unite[/b] in order to have more than 326 seats between them.[/p][p=21, 2, left]The Conservative party won 306 seats while Labour and the [b]Liberal Democrats [/b]got 258 and 57 seats [b]respectively[/b].[/p][p=21, 2, left]This meant that the Liberal Democrats effectively became '[b]kingmakers[/b]', with the power to choose which [b]rival[/b] to form a coalition with.[/p][p=21, 2, left]Both Labour and the Conservatives attempted to [b]woo[/b] the Lib Dems with various offers over the last few days, but in the end Gordon Brown resigned both as Prime Minster and as Labour leader, [b]paving the way[/b] for the new government.[/p][p=21, 2, left]Many have seen the Lib Dems as the real winners in this situation, given the fact that their leader Nick Clegg has been appointed [b]Deputy Prime Minister [/b]and four others have received [b]ministerial appointments[/b].[/p][p=21, 2, left]However, it remains to be seen how effectively David Cameron's Conservatives can work with their new partners.[/p][/size][/font][/color]

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