Outspoken Speaker Quelling the Unruly
英議長鐵腕維護秩序
By Sarah Lyall

LONDON – It is easy to spot John Bercow at the weekly ritual known as Prime Minister’s Questions, when Britain’s top lawmakers shout and jeer at one another like the ill-behaved schoolboys many once were. Mr. Bercow is the one trying to get them to shut up.
英國國會俗稱「首相的問題」的每周例行儀式中，重量級議員總會相互叫罵，一如不守規矩的男學童（不少議員當年就是這種學童）。這時候不難看到伯科在現場，試著要他們閉嘴。

“Order, order!” Mr. Bercow, the House of Commons speaker, yells repeatedly, so as to be heard above the din. Sometimes, he singles out particular miscreants.
現任英國國會下議院議長的伯科不斷高喊「安靜，安靜！」。不如此高喊不足以壓過現場的喧囂。有時候，他還會點名指斥脫序的人。

“Try to calm down and behave like an adult,” Mr. Bercow might bellow, as he once did at Tim Loughton, then the minister for children.
伯科可能高吼：「靜下來，別像個孩子一樣。」他曾經向當時的英國兒童事務大臣勞頓如此吼叫。

Speakers, who preside over debates and serve as the highest authority in the Commons, have been trying to control their unruly colleagues for as long as they have had unruly colleagues to control. (The office dates to 1377.)
議長主持議事辯論，是下議院的最高權威。打從國會難以駕馭的同僚有加以控制的必要起，議長就一直在做這檔事（議長職設於1377年）。

He is a zealot on a mission. He wants legislators to behave like plausible grown-ups, not overexcited adolescents.
他有狂熱的使命感，希望國會議員舉止像值得信任的成人，而不是過度激動的青少年。

“When the decibel level exceeds anything that Deep Purple would have even dreamed of in their heyday in the 1970s as the loudest band in the world, that is a negative,” Mr. Bercow, 50, said.
50歲的伯科說：「深紫色樂團在1970年代巔峰時期是世界上最吵的樂團，如果國會裡的分貝高到連當時的深紫色樂團都無法想像，實在不應該。」

Mr. Bercow was elected speaker in 2009 after lobbying hard for the job. A Conservative, he had alienated some colleagues by shifting to the Tory’s left wing from its right wing. (He resigned from the party, as is customary, when he became speaker.) At the same time, many Labour members supported him because they suspected that having him as speaker would annoy the Tories. (They were right.)
伯科2009年在積極爭取下當選議長。他是保守黨員，曾因自黨內右派倒向左派而使部分同志與他疏遠（出任議長後，他循例離開保守黨）。同時卻有許多工黨國會議員支持伯科，認為他當議長可讓保守黨平添困擾（他們對了）。

Before he became speaker, Mr. Bercow was already known for bringing a pedantic streak to Parliamentary debates. Once he schooled a colleague on the difference between “less” and “fewer.”
出任議長之前，伯科已因把學究風帶進國會辯論而知名。他曾經教導一名同僚less與fewer的差異。

Mr. Bercow is not universally popular. Some Conservatives actively loathe him. In describing him, his detractors tend to use words like “cocky,” “pompous” and “ambitious” – the last often code for “Jewish” in an establishment with an undercurrent of anti-Semitic snobbery.
伯科不是萬人迷。部分保守黨人厭惡他。批評者提到他，往往會使用「傲慢」、「自大」、「野心勃勃」等字眼。在有反猶太勢利心態暗流的當道集團內，「野心勃勃」通常暗指「猶太」。

The reason for this, many say, is that Mr. Bercow is an outsider in a cliquey institution controlled by politicians from Britain’s upper classes. The son of a Jewish used car salesman, Mr. Bercow grew up in North London, went to a local state school and the University of Essex.
許多人表示，原因在於，對出身英國上層階級的政治人物所控制的這個排他機構而言，伯科是外人。他是猶太二手車推銷員之子，在北倫敦長大，讀的是當地一所公立學校與艾塞克斯大學。

Disciplined, determined and dedicated, he threw himself into Tory politics, entered Parliament in 1997 and, somewhere along the way, upgraded his accent.
伯科律己嚴、有決心且全力以赴，投效保守黨之後相當活躍，1997年進入國會，過程中還學會了上流社會的口音。

In a place like the House of Commons, there is nothing like the potential loneliness of the self-invented man in a position of power. “Some people are very, very rude to him,” one legislator said.
在英國國會下議院這種場所，一個白手起家的男人一旦登上權力高峰，強烈的孤獨感可能如影隨形。一名國會議員說：「有些人對他非常非常粗魯。」

His critics say he is rude back, almost delightedly so.
批評者說，他會以牙還牙，而且幾乎樂在其中。

“If someone is being very cheeky, it can be quite fun to deal with that situation,” Mr. Bercow said. “But if you ask me, do I want to be speaker for the kick of putting people down? No. I think that would be a very sad, rather pathetic reason for wanting to be speaker. I want to be speaker because I’ve always believed passionately in Parliament.”
伯科說：「如果某人非常厚顏無恥，處理這種事可能非常好玩。不過如果你問我，我是否為了享受壓制他人的快感才想當國會議長？不。我想，那是志在議長寶座的可悲理由。我想擔任國會議長主要是因為，我對國會始終懷有熱切的信仰。」

Recently, he recalled, he and his wife were discussing disorderliness in the Commons when their 7-year-old son, Freddie, interrupted.
他說，他與妻子最近討論國會議員不守秩序的問題時，他們七歲的兒子傅雷迪突然插話。

“He turned to me and said, ‘Daddy, most people in Parliament are quite rude, but you’re not rude – you’re trying to stop other people being rude,’ ” Mr. Bercow related. “I said, ‘Freddie, that summarizes the position perfectly.’ ”
伯科說：「他面對著我，說，『爹地，多數的國會議員都很粗魯，你卻不。你一直設法制止別人的粗野舉止』。我回答說，『傅雷迪，這可一語道盡了國會議長這個職位的甘苦』。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/world/europe/john-bercow-house-of-commons-speaker-seeks-to-quell-the-unruly.html

2013-05-14聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版下