June 11
[ 2007-06-11 08:00 ]
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| Margaret Thatcher has
won a third term |
| 1987: Thatcher wins record third
term |
England have
Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has been celebrating her
third general election win after beating Labour by 376 to 229 seats.
The victory makes her the first prime minister for more than 160 years
to win three successive terms of office.
Mrs Thatcher said she was "raring to go" back to work, while defeated
Labour leader Neil Kinnock vowed to fight "on and on" to secure victory at
the next election.
The SDP Liberal Alliance again failed to become the second largest
party and "break the mould" of British politics, and questions are now
being asked about its future viability.
Basking in her achievement on the steps of Conservative Party
headquarters, Mrs Thatcher said: "It is wonderful to be entrusted with the
government of this great country once again.
"The greater the trust, the greater the duty upon us to be worthy of
that trust, and we will indeed endeavour to serve the people of these
islands in the future as we have in the past."
The new government is expected to take measures to privatise water and
electricity industries and airport authorities. Local rates are to be
replaced by a community charge, or 'poll tax'.
Mr Kinnock, who was widely believed to have led the better campaign,
said the election result would lead to "an even greater abyss of division than that which we
witnessed previously."
Insisting that Labour party morale was still high, he said: "Any
feeling that we have of depression is outweighed by the feeling of
enormous concern about what the consequences of the re-election of a
Conservative government will mean".
David Steel, speaking of the Alliance's poor performance, said: "It is
a setback, it's a disappointment, and I don't disguise that. But to write
it off as a disaster would be very foolish". |
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| A child suffering
through famine |
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1998: UN warns of famine in
Sudan | Artificially 1969:
The More than a
million people in Sudan are facing starvation, prompting the United
Nations to declare an official famine in the region.
It estimates that up to 1.2 million people could die in the south of
the country - many more than previously thought.
The dramatic increase has prompted the World Food Programme to call for
an unprecedented relief operation to target those most at risk in several
areas it describes as "famine zones".
Aid workers have been saying for weeks that the situation was out of
control and that many more people than expected were needing food.
The news came as Sudanese authorities met in the southern state of Bahr
al-Ghazal to discuss the crisis, according to the Suna news agency.
"We have failed to respond in a timely fashion again."
Save the Children Fund's Nick Southern
The first warnings that many parts of rebel and government-held
southern Sudan were likely to face extreme food shortages came in November
last year.
Child feeding centres, run by the medical group, are full of skeletal
children, and adults are little better off.
Save the Children Fund's Nick Southern said: "We have failed to respond
in a timely fashion again".
David Fletcher, who works for the World Food Programme, says from next
month it hopes to increase food deliveries by air.
Mr Fletcher has also said that the WFP's Sudan operation is now
suffering from a shortfall in donor funding of $117m. |
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| Vocabulary:
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viability: 生存能力
abyss: a
yawning gulf（深淵）
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