Abraham Lincoln famously said that “you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”. His successor, George W. Bush, is reported to have added: “You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.” Some British politicians wish to follow that advice in the debate on the public finances. Alistair Darling's refusal to do that was, it appears, the reason Gordon Brown, the prime minister, wanted to drop him. But Mr Darling is to be praised, not dropped, for his probity.
亚伯拉罕•林肯(Abraham Lincoln)有句名言：“你可以一时欺骗所有人，也可以永远欺骗某些人，但不可能永远欺骗所有人”。据报道，他的继任者乔治•布什(George W. Bush)曾补充称：“你可以永远欺骗一些人，而那些是你希望关注的人。”一些英国政界人士希望在公共财政的辩论中听从这一建议。财政大臣阿里斯泰尔•达林(Alistair Darling)拒绝这样做，这似乎是首相戈登•布朗(Gordon Brown)希望撤换他的原因。但达林应该因为他的诚实得到表扬，而非遭到撤换。