“夺回控制权”的代价高得惊人。随着预算日的临近，这一点值得深思。
根据预算责任办公室的数据，英国每减少10万移民，财政部就会损失70亿英镑。
‘Taking back control’ turns out to be staggeringly expensive. That’s something to mull over as budget day approaches Every 100,000 immigrants lost to the UK costs the treasury £7bn, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
如果你一直关注的话，这个数字并不令人意外——该计算是在2024年做出的——但同时又完全令人震惊。
That figure is unsurprising if you’ve been concentrating at all – the calculation was made in 2024 – but at the same time completely staggering.
从来没有人说，“财政大臣会因为失去那些移民而陷入困境”；很少有人评论，更不用说谴责，因政策决定而失去的大量移民。
Nobody ever says, “The chancellor’s going to be in trouble because of all those lost immigrants”; few people remark on, let alone decry, the very large numbers of migrants who have been lost due to policy decisions.
然后，随着预算日的临近，赤裸裸的事实和数学现实凸显出来：移民人数下降得比预期更快。
And then, as budget day approaches, brute facts and mathematical realities assert themselves: migration numbers have been falling faster than anticipated.
如果你采取一切措施来阻止国际学生、技术工人、所有可以想象的年轻、流动、工作且不生病的人，同时竭尽全力阻止寻求庇护者获得任何合法就业机会，你将使国家金库遭受打击。
And if you take all the measures you can to discourage international students, skilled workers, all imaginable young, mobile people who work and don’t get ill, while at the same time preventing with all your might any legitimate employment opportunities for asylum seekers, you will suffer a hit to the national coffers.