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TheOsborne identity奥斯本身份之谜 As he prepares for his second budget, thechancellor of the exchequer remains a mystery tomany in Westminster 奥斯本正酝酿上任后第二份财政预算，对于西敏斯特的众议员来说，这位财政大臣依旧是个谜。 NO OTHER office of state carries the mystique ofchancellor of the exchequer, a job that comes withalmost prime-ministerial power but only a rare dutyto enter the spotlight. The next of these occasionscomes on March 23rd, when George Osborne delivers his second budget. Coalition governmenthas left him even less visible, and less understood, than he might have been: Nick Clegg, theLiberal Democrat deputy prime minister, has become the second face of the coalition,alongside David Cameron, the prime minister. 没有其他的政府职务会比财政大臣一职更为神秘。财政大臣一职虽权比首相但是很少抛头露面。而这样的情况将在3月23日再次得到印证，届时，奥斯本将公布他的第二份财政预算。由于政府是联合执政，这让本来让人捉摸不透的他变得愈发神秘，愈发不为人所知。代表自民党的副首相尼克克莱格成了执政联盟的二把手，仅次于首相卡梅隆。 Mr Osbornes elusiveness would matter less, were the gap between his public profile and hisinfluence smaller. His plan virtually to eliminate the structural deficit in this parliament is thegovernments main task; the parallel project to reform the public services takes place withinbudgetary limits set by him. But his sway extends beyond the Treasury, where hisseriousness and technical command have surprised civil servants who expected theneophyte of popular pre-general election caricature. Mr Osborne also does much of thegovernments political thinking. He is often the dominant voice in the kind of strategymeetingsmany of which Mr Cameron lets him chairin which he first shone as a young adviserin the 1990s. | 
