Name: 英國如何解決Brexit問題？| 經濟學家》雜誌 (How can Britain fix Brexit? | The Economist)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:04:01.000Z
Duration: 3 min 34 s

In the past few days Theresa May has made history but not for good reasons.

在過去幾天 Theresa May 寫下了歷史，但不是因為好的原因。

She suffered the biggest defeat of any modern government in parliament.

她在國會裡遭受了現代政府最大的打擊。

There was a majority of 230 votes against her Brexit plan.

Britain's in a real pickle now when it comes to Brexit.

英國在脫歐的過程中陷入了困境。

There are now only about 10 weeks left until March the 29th which is when the country is due to fall out of the EU, deal or no deal, and at the moment there is no deal.

現在距離三月二十九號，也就是離開歐盟的日子，只剩大約十週的時間，不論有協議或無協議的退出。

The prime minister thought that she had negotiated a good withdrawal agreement with the EU but it has to go through parliament before it can be legitimized and parliament has indicated very clearly that it's having none of this.

首相認為她與歐盟協商出不錯的退出協議，但在生效之前必需通過國會的核可，而國會明確地表示不可行。

Theresa May herself said we're now in unchartered territory and that's about right.

Theresa May 說我們正在不合規則的範圍裡而這關乎的是大家的權益。

Britain's got a reputation for being a sensible, moderate kind of place.

英國是個以通情達理、溫和著稱的地方。

We've had an unbroken democracy here for a very long time and yet now we find ourselves in this real crisis and the reason for that is that we've got a long history here of representative democracy in which people elect MPs who take decisions on their behalf.

我們有長久連續的民主歷程而現在我們發覺我們正處於這個真正的危機當中，而原因是因為長久以來的代議政治亦即人民選出國會成員為他們作出決定。

But the Brexit referendum of 2016 injected a rarer

但是 2016 脫歐公投注入了一股罕見的

kind of direct democracy in which the people gave

a specific instruction to the government and what's

happening now is that those two different kinds

現在的情況是這兩種不同類型的

of democracy are kind of jamming up against each other.

民主制度某種程度而言正在互相干擾。

You've got the instruction of the people in

the referendum that says that Leave has to happen but

then you've got their elected representatives, who they

elected only in 2017, saying that actually the terms of

只在 2017 年選出，也就是實際上退出條款

the withdrawal are not acceptable to their constituents.

And the trouble is that both of these views have legitimacy

而問題在於雙方的論點都有其合法性

and how you resolve these competing types of democracy

而如何解決這些不同民主體制的衝突

is not at all clear, that's why Britain is in such a mess.

並不明朗，這也就是為什麼英國現在一團亂。

Many people thought after the referendum in 2016 that

because it was such a close result it might be possible

因為票數差距是如此地接近以至於有機會

to find some kind of compromise to go for a so-called

可以找出某些妥協方案例如所謂的

soft Brexit but it hasn't worked that way at all.

軟脫歐，但它從沒有以這樣的形式運作。

If anything, since the referendum, the two groups,

真要說的話，自從公投後，兩方人馬，

Part of this is the fault of Theresa May.

一部分的原因要歸於 Theresa May 。

After the referendum, she could have reached out to other

公投之後，她曾經可以接觸其它

parties, she could have reached out to Remainers to try

黨派，她本來可以接觸留歐派嘗試

to forge a kind of compromise but she didn't do that.

建立一個折衷方案但她並沒有這樣做。

She drew it up in secret with a few advisers.

她私底下與少數顧問規劃了這個協議

And given the very split nature of her party

and of parliament and of the country, this has actually

整個國會以及國家非常分歧的狀態，這也事實上是

been exactly the wrong approach and that's

what's resulted in this unprecedented defeat.

也就是為什麼有會這史無前例的挫敗。

The most important thing for Britain to do now is stop the

對英國來說目前最為重要的事情就是停止這個

clock and extend the two year Article 50 negotiating period.

時程以及延長兩年的 50 條款協商時期。

After doing that she can try and negotiate with

other parties in parliament and she's indicated that

she wants to try to do that but the Labor opposition

so far said that it's unwilling to negotiate with

her until she takes the option of no deal

off the table and she doesn't seem keen to do that.

而她對於這個方案並不這麼熱衷。

to resolve this crisis could be to put the question

back to the people and to have a second vote.

回歸給人民以及開啟第二次投票。

What we have at the moment is this absurd situation

當前我們有的就是這樣荒唐的情勢

where their elected representatives think that the deal

is a bad one but some of them feel they ought to vote

是不好的但有一些覺得他們還是應該選擇

for it anyway on the basis that it may be what voters want.

它因為這應該是人民想要的選項。

People voted narrowly to leave but the Brexit

人民偏狹地選擇脫歐但是目前的

deal that's now on the table is really quite

different to what they were offered in 2016.

人們的樣子與在 2016 的時候相當不同。

Now, voters might want this anyway, they might decide that

現在投票人可能就是想要這樣做，他們可能決定

these trade offs are worth it, but they might not.

And the only way to find out is to ask them.

而唯一能找到答案的就是問他們。