21.12.10.금 Video About a Christmas Party Drops Boris Johnson into Another Mess 파티에 관한 영상으로 또 다시 곤경에 빠진 보리스 존슨 영국 총리

Video About a Christmas Party Drops Boris Johnson into Another Mess
파티에 관한 영상으로 또 다시 곤경에 빠진 보리스 존슨 영국 총리 Writer by Stephen Castle

For a week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain has denied damaging claims that his staff broke lockdown rules by holding a party last Christmas when such festivities were banned under government-imposed coronavirus restrictions. Late Tuesday, the government’s story appeared to weaken when a video surfaced of senior staff members joking about just such a party four days after they had reportedly gathered to eat snacks, drink wine and play party games in Downing Street.
일주일 동안 보리스 존스 영국 총리는 직원들이 코로나바이러스 억제를 위해 정부가 각종 축제행사를 금지했던 지난 크리스마스에 파티를 개최해서 락다운 규정을 어겼다는 불리한 주장을 부인했다. 지난 주 화요일, 정부의 이야기는 Downing Street 모여서 스낵을 먹고, 와인을 마시고, 파티 게임을 했다는 보도된지 4일 후에 나온 한 영상이 그런 파티에 대해서 농담하는 고위급 직원들을 드러냈을때 무력화된 것으로 보였다.

▶ surface 수면위에 오르다
▶ when a video surfaced of senior staff members 영상이 (그동안 알려지지 않았던, 숨이었던) 고위급 직원들을 드러내다

The revelations have shaken Johnson’s government, coming just as Britain and the rest of the world enter a second holiday season battered by the emergence of a new variant and faced by anger and frustration from exhausted citizens.
영국과 그 밖의 전세계가 지친 시민들의 좌절과 분노와 신규 변이의 등장으로 초토화된 채 두번째 연휴 시즌을 들어가는 와중에, 이 폭로는 존슨 총리의 정부를 흔들었다.

▶ revelation (발견하게 된)새로운 사실
▶ The revelations have shaken Johnson’s government (비디오) 폭로는 존슨 총리의 정부를 흔들었다
▶ battered by the emergence of a new variant 신규 변이의 등장 때문에 초토화 된 (영국 상황)

Critics have accused Johnson of lying and trying to cover up the event. That has been accompanied by anger from some Britons who, at the time, were prevented by lockdown rules even from saying farewell to dying relatives. Downing Street has denied that a Christmas party took place but has not denied that an event of some kind took place. Johnson has said that any gathering that occurred followed COVID protocols.
비판자들은 사건을 덮으려고 하고 거짓말하는 존슨 총리를 비난했다. 이런 행동은 그 당시, 락다운으로 인해 돌아가신 친척들에게 작별인사 조차 하지 못 한 영국인들에겐 분노를 일으켰다. 영국 정부는 크리스마스 파티를 열었다는 것은 부정했지만 어떤 형식의 행사를 개최했다는 것은 부정하지 않았다. 존슨 총리는 어떤 모임이라도 코로나 수칙을 따랐다고 말했다.

▶ trying to cover up the event 사건을 뒤덮으려고 하다, 은폐하려고 시도하다.

At his weekly question-and-answer session at Parliament on Wednesday, Johnson apologized for the video but said he was repeatedly assured that no party took place. He said the Cabinet secretary would investigate and that if there were breaches of lockdown rules there would be disciplinary action.
수요일에 있었던 주간 질의응답시간에, 존슨 총리는 그 비디오에 대해서는 사과했지만 파티가 열리지 않았다고 반복적으로 확신했다. 총리는 내각에서 조사해서 방역조치를 어긴 정황이 있다면, 징계조치를 취할 것이라고 말했다.

▶ if there were breaches of lockdown rules 방역 조치를 어긴 정황이 있다면
▶ breach 위반 (breach of contract 계약위반)
▶ disciplinary action 징계 조치

Amid growing pressure on the prime minister, even some of his own lawmakers appealed publicly for him to get his story straight. On Tuesday night, the Metropolitan Police, the force that covers London, said it was reviewing the video.
총리에 대한 압박이 증가하는 가운데, 같은 당의 의원들조차도 제대로 해명해 달라고 공개적으로 호소했다. 화요일 밤에, 런던 경찰청은 그 비디오를 검토할 것이다라고 말했다.
▶ to get his story straight 제대로 해명해 달라고, (사실을) 바로 잡고 넘어가 달라고

21.11.01.월 Let me get this straight. 네 말을 정리 좀 해 보자. 권주현의 진짜 영국 영어

The reports about the Downing Street party, which first appeared in the Daily Mirror, did not suggest that Johnson himself had attended any festivities. Nor does the video released by ITV, which shows staff members conducting a mock news conference with questions about the implications of holding such a party, completely confirm that an event occurred.

But the video shows that senior staff members were aware of the risk that they might be asked about a party in Downing Street and had no credible response. The video shows Allegra Stratton, who was then Johnson’s press secretary, at a rehearsal for a news conference, with a Downing Street colleague playing a journalist. At the time, Stratton was preparing to give White House style news conferences, though that idea was eventually abandoned.

When asked about reports of a Downing Street Christmas party, she laughed and replied: “I went home,” before asking, “What’s the answer?” “Is cheese and wine all right? It was a business meeting,” Stratton can be heard saying. “This fictional party was a business meeting,” she continued, before laughing and adding: “And it was not socially distanced.”

Opponents have seized on the video as more evidence of a familiar and damaging critique: that the Conservative-led government applies one set of rules to itself and another to the rest of the population. That was deeply damaging early in the pandemic when faith in the government was seriously undermined after Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, traveled hundreds of miles to his parents’ home during a lockdown.

In response to the video, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, accused the government of misleading the public. “People across the country followed the rules even when that meant being separated from their families, locked down and — tragically for many — unable to say goodbye to their loved ones,” he said. “They had a right to expect that the government was doing the same,” he added. “To lie and to laugh about those lies is shameful.”

▶ the government was doing the same 정부도 똑같이 하고 있었다는 것
▶ “To lie and to laugh about those lies is shameful.” 거짓말을 하고, 그 거짓말에 대해 농담까지 하는 건 부끄러운 일이다