Gordon Brown saves the world

英國議會的舌劍唇槍剎是好看，昨天在下議院的答問時間，反對派領袖 David Cameron 質問首相白高敦，政府向銀行注資的計劃是否已經失敗時，白高敦一時說溜了口，把「拯救銀行」說成「拯救世界」，引來半個議事堂哄笑。

Mr David Cameron: I join the Prime Minister in paying tribute to Lance Corporal David Wilson. His family, including his fiancée, Michelle, and his young daughter, Poppy, have suffered a devastating loss, and the whole House will want to send our condolences to them.

I am going to ask the Prime Minister again about the need to get banks lending to businesses. Putting taxpayers’ money into the banks was something supported by all parts of the House in order, yes, to rescue the banking system, but as the Governor of the Bank of England says, the purpose of recapitalisation was not “merely to protect the banks”, but to ensure that “the flow of lending to the real economy could continue at normal rates”.

Does the Prime Minister accept that on those terms, his recapitalisation has failed? And when is he going to change it?

The Prime Minister: Mr Speaker, the first point of recapitalisation was to save banks that would otherwise have collapsed. We not only saved the world—[Laughter.]—saved the banks and led the way—[Interruption.] We not only saved the banks—[Interruption.]

反對派議員甚至把文件扮撒向空中，嘩，好開心！我也想拋一下。

Mr Speaker: Order.

白高敦到底也是能言善辯的政客，雖然說溜了口，但他仍能冷靜地把笑話變為吹捧政府的說話。

The Prime Minister: Not only did we work with other countries to save the world’s banking—[Interruption.] Not only did we work with other countries to save the world’s banking system, but not one depositor actually lost any money in Britain. That is the first thing. The second thing is to get the banks into a position in which they can resume lending, and that is why interest rates have come down by 3.5 per cent — something that the Opposition said was not possible, but which actually happened. The third thing to do is to work to remove all the barriers to interest rates and to the lending of money by the banks, and that is what we are doing in discussion with the banks now. The Opposition may not like the fact that we led the world in saving the banking system, but we did.

不過 Cameron 也不是省油的燈，他譏諷白高敦只懂拯救世界，卻忘了本土。白高敦此時只得苦笑。

Mr Cameron: Well, it is now on the record. The Prime Minister is so busy talking about saving the world that he has forgotten about the businesses in the country that he is supposed to be governing. All over the country there are businesses that have had interest rates increased and overdrafts restricted. I have one here: a business in Derbyshire whose overdraft facility was restricted even though its order book was full, and which has had to lay off 11 people as a result.

一問一答，議員跟首相都做足功課，看他們辯論，簡直是一種藝術。

答問環節全文 （真係 on the record）

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同日的答問環節除了白高敦那極富娛樂性的 Freudian slip 之外，自由民主黨的領袖 Nick Clegg 也鬧了笑話（不在上面的 YouTube 片段中）。他舉了一個住在 Sheffield 的單親媽媽的例子，這名低收入的女士近日被法庭要脅退回計錯了的免稅額。Clegg 本來想藉此抨擊白高敦所設立的子女免稅額制度混亂，可是說出來的卻是

Recently, a single mother with small children came to see me in Sheffield ...

由於他的遣詞用字卻人覺得他好像被一夜風流的對手上門「攞家用」，因此這次連工黨的議員都加入捧腹的行列！