We ask an awful lot of local government. From repairing roads, to collecting dustbins, maintaining parks, libraries and swimming pools, overseeing housing and planning – and, increasingly, looking after the vulnerable in early years and old age. That's just for starters.
天和网天和财政频道消息：目前，英国各地方政府已经掌管很多职责了，包括修路，收垃圾，维护公园，公共图书馆和游泳池，以及监督住房和规划委员会。而现在，地方政府又有了新的职责，那就是照顾那些生病的老人和小孩，而我们相信，这还仅仅是一个开始。
Soon, larger councils, having lost control of education, will be handed responsibility for public health, after a gap of 40 years. While, on the surface, this is an exciting move, signalling at least some democratic control over the NHS with the creation of health and wellbeing boards, the funding remains unclear. How much of the NHS budget will a cash-strapped Department of Health be prepared to cede to councils?
接下来，时隔40年后，那些失去掌管教育权力的较大的地方议会将重掌公共卫生事宜。从表面上看，这标志着通过成立健康和福利委员会，又给英国国民健康保险制度（NHS）增加了一些民主性元素，但是，国民健康保险制度的经费来源仍没有公布，而债务缠身的卫生部究竟能把多少国民保险制度的经费移交给地方议会，现在还是一个谜。
For cynics, the transfer of public health and other funding for welfare programmes merely marks a default option, leaving local government to pick up the social consequences of the government's austerity programme – "passing the buck without the bucks", in the words of one senior figure.
对于那些愤世嫉俗的人来说，转移公共卫生和其它福利计划的基金仅仅标志着政府选择了违约，让地方政府来收十紧缩方案所留下来的一系列的社会问题，正如一位高级别政府官员所说，这种行为就是在不给人家钱的情况下，却把活儿交给了人家。
After more than two years of a Conservative-led government, you might have thought that this transfer marked a co-ordinated move towards addressing the party's once-vaunted commitment to that vague concept of "localism". You would be wrong.
此前，保守党一直大肆宣传它的本地化战略，而在保守党执政两年后，如果您认为此举正是协同迈向本地化的一步，您就错了。
Sir Merrick Cockell, Tory of the Local Government Association – meeting for its annual conference in Birmingham this week – is clearly frustrated by resistance in sections of the cabinet to meaningful localism, whatever the apparent commitment of David Cameron. Cockell believes that transferring functions from Whitehall to town halls could save billions of pounds by avoiding duplication. But Whitehall has fallen back on the ultie fudge: more pilot schemes.
保守党地方政府协会的主席梅瑞克爵士在伯明翰召开的年会上表示，对于内阁中一些人反对一些非常有意义的本地化进程，他很失望，梅瑞克爵士表示，无论首相卡梅隆许下过什么样的承诺，他仍然认为，把一些职责由英国政府转至地方政府可以避免重复工作，从而省下几十亿英镑，但英国政府选择了一种最蒙混过关的方式，那就是启动若干个试点项目。
Communities and local government secretary has only managed to authorise four "showcase" councils in the north-west of England, Essex and west London, which will team up with other public agencies to pool funds. Cockell rightly argues that it is time to move beyond these endless pilots to full-scale devolution. He cites one example, repeated across the public sector, of 33 separate ventures to get young people into work. Far better, he thinks, to let councils co-ordinate joined-up schemes, perhaps through a new network of local enterprise partnerships, into a single programme.
但社区和当地政府大臣艾瑞克.皮克斯实际上只掌管位于英格兰西北部，埃塞克斯和伦敦西部的四个地方议会，这不免有装点门面之嫌，这四个地方议会将与一些其它的公共机构联合起来筹措资金，对此，梅瑞克爵士表示，现在应该越过这些无休止的试点工程，开始全方位的权力下放。他还举了33个公共部门的独立的合资企业联合起来帮助青年就业的积极例证。梅瑞克爵士还建议，如果让议会协同整体方案，通过促使当地企业合作，形成一个新的网络，把这33个独立的公司提供的服务，集成为一个项目，也许会取得更好的效果。
With English local government alone having endured cuts of £3.5bn since 2010-11, Cockell warned this week of a looming financial crunch facing councils as ministers dither over funding adult care and children's services. Unless the government acts swiftly, he estimates councils will face an eye-watering additional social care bill of £12bn by 2030. "We are heading in a direction that none of us can sustain or cope with," he warns. The consequences are all too clear: diminishing support for "street-scene" services closest to the heart of many electors – clean and well-maintained roads, parks, shopping areas, for instance – as cash is diverted to social care.
梅瑞克爵士警告说，在2010-2011财年，地方政府的财政支出已经削减了35亿英镑，而由于各部部长还对成人护理和儿童服务的何去何从犹豫不决，本周，地方议会很可能就要面临一次金融危机。如果政府不迅速行动，到2030年，地方政府的社会福利的账单又会增长120亿英镑。梅瑞克爵士警告说，如果我们再继续沿着现在的方向走下去，我们很快将达到入不敷出的境地，财政的可持续发展更是天方夜谭。而由此造成的影响也是很明显的，因为选民目前明显倾向的解决方法就是，减少“马路服务”（也就是维护及清洁马路，公园，购物区域），把钱用于社会福利。
Cockell laments that while the government is adept at passing many problems to councils, "it doesn't give us powers to tailor solutions to address those problems".
对此，梅瑞克爵士表示，政府越来越习惯于把问题扔给地方议会，但是却没有赋予地方议会以灵活的方式解决那些问题的权力。
译者/张馨元