The Budget that Alistair Darling presents on Wednesday will reveal the UK for what it is – a contender, once again, for the sick man of Europe tag it managed to shed 30 years ago. Some eurozone economies are, admittedly, hardly in better shape. The UK chancellor would not want to swap places with his counterparts in Ireland, Greece and Spain, for example. And outside the eurozone, in central and eastern Europe, some economies are in genuine crisis. But the respect, verging on awe, that the UK's post-1979 economic revival once elicited in continental Europe has now reverted to something nearer pity.
阿里斯代尔•达林(Alistair Darling)将于本周三呈交的预算案将揭示英国的真实状态——在成功摘掉“欧洲病夫”这顶帽子30年之后，英国再次成为这一头衔的有力争夺者之一。诚然，欧元区有些manbetx20客户端下载 体也好不到哪儿去。例如，英国财政大臣大概不会愿意与爱尔兰、希腊和西班牙的同行交换位置。而欧元区之外，中东欧的一些manbetx20客户端下载 体已陷入真正的危机。不过，1979年之后英国manbetx20客户端下载 复兴在欧洲大陆激起的近乎敬畏的尊重，如今又变回到某种类似于怜悯的心态。