【经济学人】英国脱欧丨2016.11.12丨总第727期

THE rallying cry of the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union was that it was time for the country’s own national institutions to seize power from the unaccountable courts and parliaments across the Channel. So there is some irony in the fact that, on November 3rd, Brexiteers spluttered with indignation when three British judges, sitting in the High Court in London, ruled that under English law the business of triggering Brexit should fall to Britain’s sovereign Parliament, rather than the government alone.

脱欧运动的战斗口号就是，对于英国的国家机构来说，现在是时候从英吉利海峡对岸毫无责任心的法院和议会中夺取政权。因此，事实上有些讽刺的是，当三位伦敦高等法院的法官在11月3日作出裁决：基于英国法律，脱欧的相关事宜应该由英国的最高议会决定，而并非单单是政府的事情；脱欧派对此决议感到非常愤怒。

• Splutter ['splʌtə] ：v.气急败坏地说，慌张地说

• Indignation [ɪndɪg'neɪʃ(ə)n ] : n.愤慨，愤怒

• Sovereign ['sɒvrɪn] : n.君主，元首

The haziness of Britain’s unwritten constitution contributes to the confusion around the ruling (see article). In fact, the High Court’s judgment may delay Brexit by a few weeks, but it does not imperil it. If the government loses its appeal in the Supreme Court next month it will have to seek Parliament’s approval before triggering Article 50 of the EU treaty, the legal route to Brexit. Theoretically, MPs could vote it down, but they won’t: although most would prefer to remain, they will not ignore the referendum held in June, which resulted in a clear vote to leave.

英国不成文宪法的盲区对这种裁决造成了混乱（详见文章）。事实上，高等法院的判决可能会将脱欧推迟一段时间，但是并不会阻止它的发生。如果当局政府下个月在最高法院上诉失败，那么在开启《欧盟条约》第50条款这条合法脱欧道路之前，他们必须取得议会的同意。理论上来说，议员们可以投反对票，但是他们不会这样做。因为尽管他们中大多数人是希望留欧，但是他们无法忽略7月的全民选举得出的“脱欧”结果。

• Imperil [ɪm'perɪl] : v.危害，威胁

Nor should they. But the case provides an opportunity for Parliament to assert its role in the Brexit negotiations, from which it has so far been marginalised by the government (see article). Untangling Britain from Europe will be a multi-year process involving hundreds of difficult choices, not a quick separation whose instructions were provided by the referendum’s single-word verdict . The details of the proposed divorce should be thrashed out in public by Britons’ elected representatives, not determined by their unelected prime minister alone and in secret.

而且议员们也不应该投反对票。不过，这件事给在脱欧事件中被政府边缘化的议会提供了一个维护自己权力的机会（详见文章）。英国退出欧盟不是一次全民投票的“同意”或者“不同意”的快速脱离，而将是一个涉及成千上万困难选择的多年过程。所提议脱离的细节过程应该开诚布公地由英国人民自己选举的代表决定，而不单单由未经选举的首相悄悄地解决。

• Marginalise ['maːdʒɪnəlaɪz] : v.边缘化

• Untangling [ˌʌn'tæŋɡl] : v.清理，解决

• Verdict ['vɜːdɪkt] : n.裁决，判断，结论

The people have spoken. But what did they mean?

民众们已经发声，那他们意味着什么？

The referendum was supposed to resolve Britain’s relationship with Europe once and for all . Yet in laying the In/Out debate to rest, it sparked many more questions. Should Britain seek to stay in the EU’s single market, or its customs union? How much should it pay into the EU budget for the privilege? Should it maintain the free movement of people? What sort of border should it have with Ireland? Countless more puzzles await, on everything from patent protection to space exploration.

全民公投本应该彻底地解决英国与欧洲的关系，但是在投票结束后，它引发了更多的问题。英国是应该想要留在欧盟的单一市场中或是关税联盟里？英国为了享有特权应向欧盟支付多少预算费用？它应该保证人口自由流动吗？它与爱尔兰应有什么样界限吗？无数的谜题等待着解决，从专利保护到太空探索的每一件事。

• once and for all：一次了结地， 一劳永逸地; 彻底地; 最终地;

The referendum result is no help on any of these matters. Nor are the promises made by Brexiteers during the campaign. Some, such as the notion that Britain could maintain its trading privileges with Europe and simultaneously end the free movement of migrants, are mutually exclusive. Others, like the claim that Britain could take back hundreds of millions of pounds a week from the EU to spend on the National Health Service, were simply untrue.

公投结果对所有这些问题都没有用的，当时脱欧派在脱欧运动期间并没有许下什么承诺。 （期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的读者试译详解哟~） 其他的像声称英国能够从欧盟每周收取数亿英镑来花费在国家卫生服务上的说法根本异想天开。

• Brexiteers：支持脱欧的人，脱欧派

Theresa May, who voted to remain and then became prime minister when her Brexiteer rivals tripped over their own shoelaces, is presumably formulating answers to these questions. Yet Britons are in the dark as to where she intends to lead them. She has published no plan, nor even a statement of objectives. Her comments suggest that she has chosen to prioritise the control of immigration, even if it means giving up membership of the single market (she says only that Britain should go on “trading in and operating within” it). This sort of “hard Brexit” is favoured by the keenest Brexiteers. But it is unclear that the public agree. One recent poll found that most would rather have single-market membership than controls on immigration.

支持留欧派的特蕾莎-梅，在她的对手脱欧派被他们自己的鞋带绊倒时成为了英国的首相，她粗略地给出了这些问题的答案。然而，英国人很茫然是因为不知道她打算如何领导他们。她没有发表任何计划，甚至没有一份有目标的声明。她表示，她选择优先考虑移民的管理，即使这意味着放弃成为单一市场成员（她只说英国应该在单一市场内继续“交易和经营”）。这种“强硬的脱欧”方式获得了脱欧派的青睐。但目前还不清楚公众意见。最近的一项民意调查显示，大多数人宁愿有单一市场的会员资格，而不是移民的自由行动权。

• tripped over：绊倒；被…绊倒；旅行

• in the dark：茫然的

Time to take back control

是时候夺回控制权了！

Trying to read the minds of voters by studying polls or tabloid headlines is the wrong approach. Instead, the path to Brexit should be a matter for transparent public debate. Britain has a body designed for just that purpose. Yet the government has resisted giving Parliament any say in, or even any real oversight of, its strategy. One reason is paranoia about a counter-revolution. Brexiteers see establishment plots everywhere: from the Bank of England, whose governor they have done their best to hound out, to the High Court, whose judges were labelled “enemies of the people” by one hysterical newspaper. Britain must urgently get over the idea that even to discuss the possible versions of Brexit is to challenge the result of the referendum. The vote in June provided no blueprint; all options must be considered.

试图通过研究民意调查或小报头条来了解选民的想法是错误的做法。相反，英国退欧的道路应该是一个透明的公开讨论的问题，英国为此成立了一个专门的机构。然而，政府一直反对给议会任何决策发言权，甚至任何真正的监督权。其中一个原因是关于一个反革命的偏执，脱欧派发现当权者的阴谋无处不在：从英格兰银行行长被迫离职，到高等法院的法官被一家有失偏颇的新闻媒体定位为“人民的敌人”。英国甚至必须去克服去讨论脱欧所有可能结果的想法，来质疑公投结果。六月份的投票没有提供蓝图；因此，必须考虑所有的选择。

• Hysterical [hɪ'sterɪkl] ：adj. 癔病性; 歇斯底里般的; 癔病的; 情绪异常激动的;

The other reason the government gives for its secrecy is that it doesn’t want to show its hand in the negotiations: if Britain is to outwit its foes in Brussels, it must keep its strategy under wraps. Parliamentary debate would supposedly give the game away. Yet this misunderstands the task ahead. Negotiating Brexit is not like selling a second-hand car with a dodgy secret under the bonnet. The breaking up of a 40-year legal, political and economic union, and the trade talks that will follow, should be done in the open. In America Congress demands a detailed outline of the president’s plans before granting him permission to negotiate trade deals that it promises not to amend. In the EU Brussels is notoriously leaky. Besides, negotiations there do not rely on secret fall-back positions, but a gradual fumbling toward compromise.

对于所谓机密，政府给出的另一个原因是，他们不想在谈判摊牌：如果英国想在布鲁塞尔智取它的敌人，它必须对自己的策略进行保密。议会辩论可能会露出马脚。然而，这却早早地对这个任务产生了误解。商讨英国脱欧不同于在遮蔽下狡猾地秘密出售二手车。一个40年的法律、政治和经济联盟的破裂，以及将要进行的贸易谈判，应该在公开的情况下进行。美国国首先会要求总统提出一份计划的详细大纲，然后才允许他谈判承诺不会变动的贸易协议。在欧盟当中，布鲁塞尔存在的漏洞早已臭名远扬。此外，本次商讨并不取决于秘密进行的次要方案，而是一个跌跌撞撞最终达成妥协的过程。

Britain did not vote to take back control from Europe only for decisions to be made by a prime minister pretending somehow to channel the will of the people by intuition alone. Parliament is the place for Brexit’s knotty details to be untangled. Those who would deny Britons that right are the real enemies of the people.

英国不是为了从欧盟夺回控制权而进行投票，只是因为在首相臆断之下假装用某种方式来获得民意所做出的决定。议会是英国脱欧中棘手的细节得到解开的地方。那些对英国公民所具有的权利予以否认的人才是人民真正敌人。