|
摘要: 英国政府最近整理出的第一份政府航空旅行明细表显示,首相布莱尔近年来的家庭度假旅行已花掉纳税人13万英镑,因此有人指责说他简直“将女王的飞机当成了自己的出租车”。 Tony Blair was accused of using the Queen‘s Flight as his personal taxi service after it emerged that he had spent more than ?130,000 of taxpayers‘ money on a string of family holidays. 英国政府最近整理出的第一份政府航空旅行明细表显示,首相布莱尔近年来的家庭度假旅行已花掉纳税人13万英镑,因此有人指责说他简直“将女王的飞机当成了自己的出租车”。 布莱尔乘皇家飞机是为了安全? 据《泰晤士报》网站4月12日报道,这份统计表显示,布莱尔每年搭乘皇家飞机旅行的次数多达60次,且通常作来往于他的家乡塞奇菲尔德之用,有时也乘皇家飞机参加工党会议。其中半数属于国内飞行,多是从伯明翰到德文郡或苏格兰等地。 布莱尔的假日旅行中耗资最大的一次,是2004年圣诞节携妻子孩子到埃及度假胜地沙姆沙伊赫,总行程耗资3.1万英镑。英国首相府官员说,首相原来的意思是想乘坐标准商务舱赶赴埃及的,但被安全顾问否决了。 女王一年只飞8次 经常坐火车 然而,英国伊丽莎白女王搭乘皇家飞行队驾驶的老式飞机的次数每年总共算下来也仅有8次。白金汉宫的官员透露说,“女王经常坐火车出门”。 英国环境、食品和乡村事务部部长、内阁大臣马格利特·贝克特女士,是内阁中除布莱尔之外利用飞机最为频繁的人。而具有讽刺意味的是,她的职责正是要减少二氧化碳的排放量和控制政府航空旅行次数。贝克特近3年来的110次飞行花掉了总共10万英镑。 Blair Used Royal Jet for Family Holidays Tony Blair was accused of using the Queen‘s Flight as his personal taxi service after it emerged that he had spent more than ?130,000 of taxpayers‘ money on a string of family holidays. In the first detailed breakdown of government air travel, it was revealed that the Prime Minister uses the royal flight up to 60 times a year and regularly commandeers it to fly him to and from his Sedgefield, Co Durham, constituency. He also uses it to go to Labour Party conferences. About half the flights were domestic, ranging from Birmingham to Devon and Scotland. The Prime Minister‘s four holiday trips included his Christmas 2004 holiday to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt with his wife and children, for which the flight cost ?31,000. Downing Street insisted that the Prime Minister had been willing to go on a standard commercial flight to Egypt but had been overruled by security advisers. The week-long holiday included a meeting with President Mubarak of Egypt and with King Abdullah of Jordan. His holiday in Italy in August 1997 cost ?17,000; in France ?18,000 in August 1998; in Italy ?19,300 in August 1999; and Italy again ?16,000 in August 2000. In 2004 Mr Blair and his family combined his holiday to Italy with a trip to the Athens Olympics at a cost of ?18,000. In contrast, the Queen uses the ageing royal fleet of planes, operated by 32 Squadron at RAF Northolt, around eight times a year. "She often uses a scheduled train too," a Buckingham Palace official said. Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, whose department is responsible for reducing both carbon emissions and air travel across Government, is one of the next highest users in the Cabinet. She has cost the taxpayer over ?100,000 on 110 flights in three years.
关键字:英语阅读 | | |