Protesters across UK demonstrate against spiralling cost of living
-Events co-organised by People’s Assembly and trade unxs held in at least 25 towns and cities

英国各地的抗议者抗议生活成本不断上升
——抗议活动由人民议会及工会协办，在至少25个市镇发起


(People in Newcastle take part in the People's Assembly’s nationwide protest against the rising cost of living.)

（纽卡斯尔的人们参加了人民议会发起的全国性抗议活动，抗议生活成本的上涨。）
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Protesters demonstrated in dozens of towns and cities across the UK on Saturday to highlight how the spiralling cost of living crisis is affecting the public.

上周六，英国几十个城镇和城市的抗议者举行了示威活动，以强调不断上升的生活成本危机是如何影响公众的。

The demonstrations, co-organised by anti-austerity organisation People’s Assembly and supported by trade unxs, were held in at least 25 towns and cities, from London to Glasgow to Bangor.

抗议活动由反紧缩组织人民议会联合组织，并得到工会的支持，在从伦敦到格拉斯哥到班戈的至少25个城镇举行。

The protests come as UK inflation jumped to 5.4% in December, the highest rate in almost 30 years. The Bank of England warned CPI will hit 6% by April, with governor Andrew Bailey coming under fire for suggesting workers should not ask for big pay rises to control it.

去年12月，英国通胀率飙升至5.4%，创下近30年来的最高水平。英国央行警告称，消费者价格指数将在4月份达到6%，央行行长安德鲁·贝利因建议工人不应要求大幅加薪来控制这一水平而受到抨击。

“Working people could not be working harder and yet life is getting so much more difficult,” said Laura Pidcock, national secretary of the People’s Assembly and a former Labour MP. She said there was “real anger” over the cost of living crisis and the government’s failure to act.

人民议会国家秘书、前工党议员劳拉·皮德科克表示：“工薪阶层已经努力工作到极限了，但生活却正在变得如此艰难。”她表示，人们对生活成本危机和政府未能采取行动感到“真正愤怒”。

“Older people will be cold in their homes, people will be struggling to feed their children, when none of this is a crisis of their making,” Pidcock said.

皮德科克说：“老年人在家里会受冻，人们会为养活孩子而苦苦挣扎，而这些都不是他们自己造成的危机。”
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The events follow fears rising living costs will be experienced by the UK’s poorest the hardest. The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has come under pressure to rethink April’s national insurance (NI) rise, after a thinktank warned UK households classed “destitute” could climb by almost a third – to more than 1 million – this spring.

此前，人们担心，英国最贫困的人群将最为艰难地经历不断上涨的生活成本。英国财政大臣里希·苏纳克受到压力，要求他重新考虑4月份国民保险的上调。此前，一家智库警告称，今年春天，英国“贫困”家庭的数量可能上升近三分之一，达到100多万。

Placards in Parliament Square in London read “tax the rich” and obxted to surging energy prices. In Newcastle, one sign held near a baby said: “I can do a better job than Boris.”

伦敦议会广场上的标语牌上写着“向富人征税”，反对高涨的能源价格。在纽卡斯尔，一个婴儿旁边戴着一块牌子，上面写着：“我能做得比鲍里斯更好。”

In autumn, the government withdrew a £1,040-a-year uplift to universal credit (UC) – opposed by several leading Conservatives including Iain Duncan Smith, UC’s architect – despite warnings it could plunge 800,000 people into poverty.

去年秋天，政府取消了每年提高1040英镑的全民信贷计划——这遭到了包括全民信贷的规划师伊恩·邓肯·史密斯在内的几位主要保守党人士的反对——尽管有人警告称，这项计划可能会使80万人陷入贫困。

The protests were sparked because “people are fed up of rich men telling them that they have to pay for boardroom greed and colossal market failure,” said Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite.

抗议活动的起因是“人们受够了富人告诉他们，他们必须为董事会的贪婪和巨大的市场失灵买单，”联合秘书长莎伦·格雷汉姆说。

“This crisis was not caused by working people and we are not going to take wage cuts to pay for it,” Graham added.

格雷汉姆：“这场危机不是由工薪阶层造成的，我们不会通过减薪来弥补缺口。”
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Andy Simmons, a 24-year-old from Leeds who works in merchandising in London, attended the Parliament Square demo to protest rising living costs after his rent was recently hiked.

24岁的安迪·西蒙斯来自利兹，在伦敦从事商品销售工作。他参加了议会广场的示威活动，抗议最近房租上涨导致的生活成本的上升。
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“When I moved in I was paying £780 rent a month,” he said, for a room in a flat with three housemates. “Now I’m paying £845 – it could have even been worse, the landlord wanted to raise it to £950.”

“当我搬进来的时候，我每个月要付780英镑的房租，”他说，他和三个人合租了一套公寓。“现在我要付845英镑——本来可能更糟，房东想把价格提高到950英镑。”

“Quality of life is progressively getting worse under a Tory government,” Simmons said. “But they can obviously afford to spend millions giving Big Ben a makeover.”

西蒙斯说：“在保守党政府的领导下，人们的生活质量正日益恶化。但他们显然能支付得起数百万美元来改造大本钟。”

Sunak insisted it was “simply not right” that the “poorest will bear the burden” of NI rises in an interview with Sky News.

苏纳克在接受天空新闻采访时坚称，让“最穷的人来承担国民保险上升的负担”是“根本不对的”。

But opposition MPs at Saturday’s events blamed the Conservatives. “The cost of living crisis is a Tory political choice: they hand bankers a £1bn-a-year tax cut while scrapping the £20-a-week universal credit uplift,” Labour MP Zarah Sultana, who attended the Coventry demonstration, said on Twitter.

但是反对党议员在周六的事件中指责保守党。“生活成本危机是保守党的政治选择：他们给银行家每年10亿英镑的减税，同时取消了每周20英镑的全民信贷提升，”参加考文垂示威活动的工党议员萨拉·苏塔纳在推特上写到。

“Low-paid workers cannot and will not pay for the government’s problems,” said Fran Heathcote, president of the Public and Commercial Services unx. “The hike in heating bills, fuel, transport costs and national insurance contributions, at the same time as pay is held down and pensions are being attacked, leaves most workers with a real cost of living crisis.”

“低收入工人不能也不会为政府的问题买单，”公共和商业服务工会主席弗兰·希思科特表示。“取暖费、燃料费、交通费用和国民保险费用的上涨，同时工资被压低，养老金受到冲击，让大多数工人面临真正的生活成本危机。”