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Sybil the cat, who moved into Downing Street shortly after Prime Minister Gordon Brown took office two years ago, has died after a short illness.
The black and white feline, named after Basil Fawlty's wife in the hit 1970s comedy Fawlty Towers, was brought to London by Alistair Darling after he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Brown's government in June 2007.
Sybil died earlier this week at the home of a family friend, a Downing Street spokesman said.
"Mew Labour is dead," quipped the Independent daily, referring to the fact that Sybil was the first new cat in Downing Street since Tony Blair took power in 1997, after famously rebranding his party as New Labour.
Sybil's arrival was inauspicious, it noted: weeks after she arrived, Darling was grappling with the first run on a bank in over a century at the Northern Rock, presaging last year's full-blown global financial crisis.
Darling's official residence is number 11, next door to Brown's 10 Downing Street home, but a spokesman for the incoming premier admitted in 2007 that the cat would have the run of both houses.
"It's quite difficult to confine cats, so, yes. The prime minister doesn't have a problem with it. (The prime minister's wife) Sarah Brown doesn't have a problem with it," he said at the time.
Sybil's predecessor as chief mouser in the seat of government was Humphrey, who arrived in 1989 when Margaret Thatcher was in office, but left shortly after Blair came to power.
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(Agencies)
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日前，英國“第一貓”西比爾身患急癥去世。英國首相戈登?布朗兩年前上任后不久，西比爾便入住唐寧街。
西比爾的名字取自上世紀70年代的熱門喜劇《弗爾蒂旅館》中主人公巴茲爾?弗爾蒂妻子的名字。2007年6月阿利斯泰爾?達林出任布朗政府的財政大臣后，就將這只黑白相間的名貓帶至倫敦生活。
唐寧街一位發言人稱，西比爾于本周初在一位家庭朋友的家中去世。
英國《獨立報》諷刺道：“工黨的貓死了”，暗指西比爾是1997年托尼?布萊爾走馬上任以后新來唐寧街的第一貓。布萊爾上任之前，將其所屬的工黨重新命名為“新工黨”，這在當時引發轟動。
該報還寫道，西比爾的到來預示著不幸，她到后僅幾周，達林就為了對付百年一遇的北巖銀行問題而焦頭爛額，而這又成為去年席卷全球的金融危機的先兆。
達林的府邸在唐寧街11號，緊鄰布朗的10號官邸，但2007年布朗上任之初，他的一位發言人就曾表示，第一貓會兩家跑。
這位發言人當時說：“想把貓關住實在太難了，的確是這樣。首相沒覺得這有什么麻煩的，（首相夫人）莎拉?布朗也沒覺得。”
西比爾的前任、英國首相府的“頭號捕鼠器”漢弗萊在1989年入住唐寧街，當時在位的是他的女主人瑪格麗特?撒切爾夫人。但布萊爾上任后不久，漢弗萊就“退休”了。
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（英語點津 許雅寧編輯）
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