The bitter end of May

苦澀的五月末

Another British prime minister is destroyed by the Europe question

又一位英國(guó)首相被歐洲問(wèn)題毀了

Theresa May has reached the end of her failed premiership

特蕾莎·梅(Theresa May)已經(jīng)結(jié)束了她失敗的首相任期

THERESA MAY’S premiership has entered its surreal phase. On May 22nd the prime minister dutifully read out the ten points of her revised EU withdrawal bill to the House of Commons. The front bench next to her was half-empty, because several members of her cabinet were holed-up somewhere else discussing what to do next. The benches behind her emptied as she spoke. This was not just a prime minister without authority but a prime minister without an audience.

特里薩?梅(THERESA MAY)的首相任期已進(jìn)入超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義階段。5月22日，首相盡職盡責(zé)地向下議院宣讀了她修改后的脫歐法案的十個(gè)要點(diǎn)。她旁邊的前凳子上有一半空著，因?yàn)樗膸孜粌?nèi)閣成員正在別的地方討論下一步該做什么。她說(shuō)話時(shí)，身后的凳子空了。這不僅是一位沒(méi)有權(quán)威的首相，也是一位沒(méi)有聽(tīng)眾的首相。

詞匯

Surreal/超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義的；離奇的；不真實(shí)的

Cabinet/內(nèi)閣

The rest of the day was consumed with frantic rumours about her imminent resignation. The good news for Mrs May was that the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs put off a decision to change the party’s rules in order to allow an immediate leadership challenge. The bad news, delivered an hour or so later, was that Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House and the person responsible for bringing the withdrawal bill before the Commons, resigned, becoming the 36th minister to leave the government. Mrs May avoided further confrontations with disgruntled colleagues only by retreating to Downing Street and turning away ministers who asked to see her. “The sofa is up against the door, she’s not leaving,” remarked Iain Duncan-Smith, a former Tory leader.

那天剩下的時(shí)間都被有關(guān)她即將辭職的瘋狂謠言所占據(jù)。對(duì)梅來(lái)說(shuō)，好消息是，1922年由保守黨后座議員組成的委員會(huì)推遲了一項(xiàng)改變保守黨規(guī)則的決定，以允許立即對(duì)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層發(fā)起挑戰(zhàn)。大約一個(gè)小時(shí)后傳來(lái)的壞消息是，負(fù)責(zé)向下議院提交撤軍法案的眾議院領(lǐng)袖安德里亞?利德索姆(Andrea Leadsom)辭職，成為第36位離開(kāi)政府的部長(zhǎng)。為了避免與心懷不滿的同事進(jìn)一步發(fā)生沖突，梅只得退回唐寧街，并拒絕了要求見(jiàn)她的大臣們。“沙發(fā)靠著門，她不會(huì)離開(kāi)，”前保守黨領(lǐng)袖伊恩?鄧肯-史密斯(Iain Duncan-Smith)表示。

詞匯

Resignation/辭職；放棄；辭職書

Backbench/后座議員席

It is hard to see how Mrs May can hang on for long, even if she adds the kitchen sink to the sofa. The Conservatives are expecting a drubbing in this week’s European election, whose results will be announced on May 27th. Polls put the party in the single figures. Tory MPs from all sides of the party—liberals such as Tom Tugendhat as well as Brexiteers like Steve Baker—are calling for her to go. President Donald Trump may arrive for his state visit on June 3rd to a country without a prime minister.

很難想象梅怎么能堅(jiān)持很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間，即使她把廚房的水槽壓在沙發(fā)上。保守黨預(yù)計(jì)將在本周的歐洲選舉中大敗，選舉結(jié)果將于5月27日公布。民意調(diào)查顯示該黨的支持率只有一位數(shù)。來(lái)自各黨派的保守黨議員，如湯姆·塔根哈特以及史蒂夫·貝克等脫歐派人士，都呼吁她下臺(tái)。唐納德·特朗普總統(tǒng)可能于6月3日抵達(dá)一個(gè)沒(méi)有總理的國(guó)家進(jìn)行國(guó)事訪問(wèn)。

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Mrs May has been under pressure to quit for months. What brought matters to a head this week was her revised withdrawal bill. In her plodding style, she tried to win over various interest groups by offering something for everyone: strengthened workers’ rights to please the Labour left, an option for MPs to vote for a second referendum to entice Remainers. She ended up alienating them all. The Tory party’s Brexit wing erupted at the mention of a second referendum; Brexiteer ministers claim that Mrs May “exceeded what was agreed in cabinet”.

幾個(gè)月來(lái)，梅一直承受著辭職的壓力。本周最重要的是她修改后的提現(xiàn)法案。在她沉悶的風(fēng)格中，她試圖通過(guò)向每個(gè)人提供一些東西來(lái)贏得各種利益集團(tuán)的支持:加強(qiáng)工人取悅工黨左派的權(quán)利，讓議員們可以選擇進(jìn)行第二次公投來(lái)吸引留歐派。她最終疏遠(yuǎn)了他們所有人。一提到第二次公投，保守黨的脫歐派就爆發(fā)了;脫歐派大臣們聲稱，梅“超出了內(nèi)閣達(dá)成的共識(shí)”。

詞匯

Plodding/單調(diào)乏味的；沉重緩慢的

Referendum/公民投票權(quán)；外交官請(qǐng)示書

Alienate/使疏遠(yuǎn)，離間；讓與

As we went to press, Downing Street was still promising to bring forward the withdrawal bill on June 7th. If it does, it will go down to an even bigger defeat than last time. Even former converts such as Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab have said that they will vote against.

截至發(fā)稿時(shí)，唐寧街仍承諾將于6月7日提出歐盟退出法案法案。如果真的如此，它將遭遇比上次更大的失敗。就連鮑里斯?約翰遜(Boris Johnson)和多米尼克?拉布(Dominic Raab)等前皈依者也表示，他們將投反對(duì)票。

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How did the Conservative Party—an outfit that prides itself on its age, wisdom and ruthless appetite for power—get into such a mess? The British establishment has always been ambivalent about the European project, partly because it was on the winning side in the second world war and partly because it has historically seen Britain as a global power, not a continental one. That ambivalence curdled into hatred in some sections of the Tory party as the EU acquired more of the trappings of a state.

保守黨——一個(gè)以自己的年齡、智慧和對(duì)權(quán)力的無(wú)情欲望為傲的機(jī)構(gòu)——是如何陷入如此混亂的呢?英國(guó)當(dāng)局對(duì)歐洲一體化計(jì)劃一直持矛盾的態(tài)度，部分原因是它在二戰(zhàn)中站在了勝利一方，部分原因是它從歷史上一直把英國(guó)視為一個(gè)全球強(qiáng)國(guó)，而不是一個(gè)大陸強(qiáng)國(guó)。隨著歐盟獲得更多國(guó)家的標(biāo)志，這種矛盾心理在保守黨的某些部門演變成了仇恨。

詞匯

Appetite/食欲；嗜好

Ambivalent/矛盾的；好惡相克的

Continental/大陸的；大陸性的

Curdle/凝固

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The Brexit referendum of 2016 created a poisonous clash between direct and representative democracy. The Tories’ Brexit wing, convinced that it had the “will of the people” on its side, kept demanding an ever-purer version of Brexit. Those who lean towards Remain refused to vote for a hard Brexit that they thought would impoverish their constituents. As Mrs May’s hold on power has weakened, so has her ability to enforce a compromise.

2016年的英國(guó)退歐公投在直接民主和代議制民主之間制造了一場(chǎng)有害的沖突。保守黨的脫歐派堅(jiān)信自己擁有“人民的意愿”，不斷要求英國(guó)脫歐的版本更加純粹。那些傾向于留歐的人拒絕投票支持硬退歐，他們認(rèn)為硬退歐會(huì)讓選民陷入貧困。隨著梅對(duì)權(quán)力的掌控減弱，她推行妥協(xié)的能力也在減弱。

詞匯

Referendum/公民投票權(quán)

There is also a subtler reason. British politics still has not recovered from the financial crisis of 2008-09, and the blow that it dealt to the country’s globalised, light-regulation model of capitalism. The crisis not only led to a prolonged period of wage stagnation. It also stoked popular demand to “take back control” from the forces that had dominated the economy over the previous decades. The rise of the Labour left, under Jeremy Corbyn, was driven by a demand to discipline global companies that trample on local communities (Mr Corbyn spent much of prime minister’s question time this week lambasting Mrs May for the closure of British Steel). The rise of the nationalist right, most recently in the form of the Brexit Party, is propelled by a desire to insulate Britain from global uncertainty, particularly when it comes to immigration.

還有一個(gè)更微妙的原因。英國(guó)政治仍未從2008年至2009年的金融危機(jī)中恢復(fù)過(guò)來(lái)，這場(chǎng)危機(jī)對(duì)英國(guó)全球化、弱監(jiān)管的資本主義模式造成了打擊。這場(chǎng)危機(jī)不僅導(dǎo)致了長(zhǎng)期的工資停滯。這也刺激了民眾要求“奪回”過(guò)去幾十年主導(dǎo)經(jīng)濟(jì)的力量的控制權(quán)。杰里米?科爾賓(Jeremy Corbyn)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下的工黨左派崛起，是受一種要求的推動(dòng)，即對(duì)踐踏當(dāng)?shù)厣鐓^(qū)的全球企業(yè)進(jìn)行懲戒(科爾賓本周在首相質(zhì)詢時(shí)間的大部分時(shí)間里，都在抨擊梅關(guān)閉英國(guó)鋼鐵公司)。民族主義右翼勢(shì)力的崛起，最近以英國(guó)退歐黨(Brexit Party)的形式出現(xiàn)，是由一種將英國(guó)與全球不確定性隔絕開(kāi)來(lái)的愿望推動(dòng)的，尤其是在移民問(wèn)題上。

詞匯

Subtler/更加微妙的

Prolonged/ ?延長(zhǎng)的；拖延的；持續(xù)很久的

Stagnation/停滯；滯止

Lambaste/痛打；嚴(yán)責(zé)；鞭打

The Conservatives are profoundly divided over what to do about this crisis. Broadly speaking, the right of the party wants to complete the Thatcher revolution by deregulating markets still further and slashing taxes. For them, leaving the EU is a prerequisite to turning Britain into an offshore Singapore. The left of the party, meanwhile, wants to return to the One Nation tradition that believes in a more active role for the state and in reining back the excesses of capitalism.

對(duì)于如何應(yīng)對(duì)這場(chǎng)危機(jī)，保守黨內(nèi)部存在嚴(yán)重分歧。廣義上說(shuō)，保守黨的右翼希望通過(guò)進(jìn)一步放松市場(chǎng)管制和減稅來(lái)完成撒切爾革命。對(duì)他們來(lái)說(shuō)，離開(kāi)歐盟是把英國(guó)變成一個(gè)離岸新加坡的先決條件。與此同時(shí)，該黨的左派希望回歸“一個(gè)國(guó)家”的傳統(tǒng)，即相信國(guó)家應(yīng)發(fā)揮更積極的作用，并遏制資本主義的過(guò)度行為。

詞匯

slashing taxes/削減稅收

Mrs May has proved to be just the wrong person to help the party out of this crisis. She has some of the right instincts—realising two years ago, for instance, that the government needed to increase its majority to avoid being held prisoner by clashing Tory factions, and that it had to deal with the unhappiness that led to Brexit. But she lacked the ability to make these things happen. She is an introvert who dislikes the rough-and-tumble of politics and who tries to run everything through a tiny group of advisers. When she was in her pomp she tried to exclude Parliament from having any say over the Brexit deal.

事實(shí)證明，梅正是幫助該黨走出這場(chǎng)危機(jī)的錯(cuò)誤人選。她有一些正確的直覺(jué)——例如，她在兩年前就意識(shí)到政府需要增加其多數(shù)席位，以避免被保守黨派系之間的沖突所俘虜，而且它必須應(yīng)對(duì)導(dǎo)致英國(guó)退歐的不愉快。但她缺乏實(shí)現(xiàn)這些目標(biāo)的能力。她是一個(gè)內(nèi)向的人，不喜歡政治上的混亂，她試圖通過(guò)一小群顧問(wèn)來(lái)管理一切。在她盛氣凌人的時(shí)候，她曾試圖將議會(huì)排除在英國(guó)退歐協(xié)議之外。

詞匯

Pomp/盛況；浮華；威勢(shì)

The race to succeed her is already approaching a full gallop. It is a measure of how big a mess the party is in that some 20 MPs have signalled that they are running, offering a bewildering range of policies. The favourite is Mr Johnson (see Bagehot).

接替她的賽跑已經(jīng)接近全速前進(jìn)了。場(chǎng)面是如此大而亂以至于大約20名議員表示他們正在競(jìng)選，提出了一系列令人眼花繚亂的政策。最受歡迎的是約翰遜先生。

詞匯

Gallop/疾馳；飛奔

Bewildering/使人困惑的；令人產(chǎn)生混亂的

It is still unclear what will happen when Mrs May does indeed resign—whether she will stay on while a successor is chosen, when the contest will conclude, and whether her successor will feel obliged to call a general election. But one thing is clear. For all Mrs May’s many failings as a politician, she was also the victim of powerful forces that show no sign of abating.

目前還不清楚當(dāng)梅真的辭職時(shí)將會(huì)發(fā)生什么——在繼任者選定期間，她是否會(huì)留任，競(jìng)選何時(shí)結(jié)束，她的繼任者是否會(huì)感到有必要舉行大選。但有一件事是清楚的。盡管梅作為一名政治家有許多失敗之處，但她也是強(qiáng)大力量的受害者，這些力量絲毫沒(méi)有減弱的跡象。

詞匯

Abating/硬度降低

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