A beach in Antigua is not the ideal place for a prime minister to be photographed less than a week after his first budget where the focus was the crushing(压垮人的) cost-of-living crisis(生活成本危机).
安提瓜的海滩并非首相拍照的理想地点，尤其是他首份预算案发布不到一周，而该预算案的焦点正是压得人喘不过气的生活成本危机。
Add to the beachside cocktail a row about reparations for the British role in the slave trade, one of the favoured punching bags of the right-wing press, and it becomes easy to understand why Andy Burnham was wary of even attending the Commonwealth heads of government meeting.(再给海滩鸡尾酒添上赔偿争端，就不难理解伯纳姆为何连峰会都怕出席。)
再给这杯海滩鸡尾酒添上一场关于英国在奴隶贸易中所扮演角色的赔偿争端——这是右翼媒体最爱攻击的靶子之一——就不难理解安迪·伯纳姆为何连出席英联邦政府首脑会议都心存顾虑了。
But behind the scenes(在幕后，私下地), Foreign Office officials are convinced they have pulled off a quiet diplomatic victory – but one which will take some time to bear fruit(取得成果，开花结果). A clear offer of an apology, which will now be worked on behind the scenes, and a path for the summit to move on from a prominent focus on reparations, which had driven many leaders from countries where that subject is not high on the agenda to avoid it altogether.(明确道歉的意愿，以及让峰会摆脱赔偿议题突出关注的路径，该议题曾迫使许多领导人回避峰会。)
但在幕后，外交部官员确信他们已悄然取得一场外交胜利——尽管这场胜利还需时日才能开花结果。他们明确表示愿意道歉（具体内容将在幕后拟定），并为峰会开辟一条路径，使其摆脱对赔偿议题的突出关注；此前，这一议题曾迫使许多来自不重视该议题国家的领导人干脆回避峰会。