Stop footling about, we have serious work to do

别再浪费时间了，我们还有正经事要做。

||1:The Conservatives enjoy the healthiest balance-sheet, although it is footling by American presidential standards.||2:According to the Electoral Commission, the party has out-fundraised Labour in three of the past four quarters.||3:Its debts are much smaller and its finances less reliant on unpredictable trade union bosses.||4:This makes it easier to invest in staff and technology: the Tories have already recruited three waves of campaign managers for 2015.

||1:尽管以美国选举标准看来，英国保守党的收支盈余不值一提，但其收支状况在英国各党派中确实最为良好。||2:美国选举委员会（Electoral Commission）曾表示，该党在过去四个季度中有三个季度的募资数额要高过工党。||3:保守党的负债相对少得多，财政上也不太依赖那些飘忽不定的工会主席。||4:因此，保守党更易于人员和技术上进行投资：该党已为2015年国会选举雇佣的三批竞选管理者。

||1: Sally Bedell Smith, an American society biographer, offers her readers the illusion of knowing the queen as a friend. ||2: Ms Bedell Smith brightly describes her own brief chats with the monarch at a Washington garden party and a London reception, before sprinkling her account with minute indiscretions from other people who have met her. ||3: The elder President Bush reveals that Elizabeth II is “rather formal” but not “standoffish”. ||4: A witness describes how a puppy defecated in front of the queen during a visit to a Kentucky horse-breeder, breaking the ice. ||5: Nancy Reagan recalls a breakfast with the queen, Prince Philip and Prince Charles at Windsor Castle; she was surprised that everyone poured their own cereal from the box. ||6: It is reported that the queen likes a travel rug round her knees and used to wear a hard hat when watching stallions cover her mares (now she stands on a viewing platform, after health and safety advice). ||7: This footling stuff is only of any interest because it is about the queen. ||8: But—fatally—those same domestic details have nothing to do with why Elizabeth II, as queen, is interesting.

||1:美国的社会传记作家莎莉·贝德尔·史密斯向读者描述了女王作为朋友的一面。||2:贝德尔·史密斯女士生动地记叙了她在华盛顿一个花园派对和在伦敦的一次招待会上同女王简短的谈话，也写到了一些遇见女王的人的轻率之举动。||3:老布什总统透露，伊丽莎白二世“非常遵守礼节”但又不“冷淡”。||4:一个目击者描述，在女王去肯塔基州一户养马人家时，一只小狗当着女王的大便，这打破了沉默的气氛。||5:南希·里根回忆：有一次和女王，菲利普亲王以及查尔斯王子在温莎城堡里共进早餐，当她看到在座的每个人都自己从一个大盒子里倒出吃的食物，她很惊讶。||6:据报道，女王喜欢在膝盖上裹一条毯子，在看她的种马和母马交配时喜欢戴一顶安全帽（出于卫生和安全考虑，现在她站在一个观景平台上观看）。||7:这些无足轻重的事情一点都不有趣，仅仅因为它们和女王有关。||8:但不幸的是，这些家庭生活的细节和作为女王的伊丽莎白二世是否有趣一点关系都没有。

But it has been interpreted to mean that they must abide by every footling wildlife regulation on Earth.

但是它被解释成他们必须遵守地球上每一项有关微不足道的野生动物的法规。

Congress’s response to recent bribery scandals has been to impose footling restrictions on lobbyists.

国会对于近期行贿丑闻的回应是给说客强加了琐细的限制条款。

“REVOLUTION” is an overused word; the latest footling change often hyped into the biggest revolution since the last one.

时下“革命”是个烂词，任何最新的无用的变化经常夸张的称之为上一次革命以来最大的革命。

footling presentation

逆产,脚踏莲花生,足先露

double footling presentation

双定位