PMQ 是prime minister question的縮寫。英國眾議院每周三有約半小時到一小時的時間，讓眾眾議院政治領袖有機會要求首相回答自己的提問，並聽取首相回答。

反對黨往往抓住PMQ時間砲轟首相，首相也不惶多讓。反對黨與執政黨唇槍舌劍，全過程都錄像公開在網路上。

我今天看的這期是1/29的首相問答。工黨(眾議院反對黨)領袖Jeremy Corbyn 連續質疑首相May無能與歐盟達成協議，使英國落入無協議脫歐此風險情境。

以下寫幾個值得學習的表達:

1. holding the country to ransom

Does not that tell us that the Prime Minister has been recklessly wasting time, holding the country to ransom with the threat of no deal in a desperate attempt to blackmail MPs to vote for her hopelessly unpopular deal?

挾持人質要贖金，可以這樣說: The man’s brother was held for ransom.
這裡的句子變成the prime minister held the country for ransom.

有趣的是，這個句子用了一些名詞子句來擴充含意，包含:
with the threat of no deal
in a desperate attempt
to blackmail MPs to vote for her hopelessly unpopular deal

這裡是Jeremy Corbyn 在批評May仗著認為英國議會害怕無協議脫歐，所以沒有努力與英國達成新的協議，反正最後英國議會都只能支持May提出的協議版本。

2. He cannot have it both ways

Today, Wednesday, he is saying that we should not be spending money on no-deal preparations; on Monday, he said that no-deal preparations were “too little, too late.” He cannot have it both ways: either we are doing too much or we are doing too little. So perhaps he can break his usual habit and actually give us a decision—which is it?

這裡May回應Jeremy Corbyn 的質問。有意思的是，May沒有直接回答，而是指出Jeremy Corbyn 他自己的自相矛盾，言下之意是，你工黨反正無論我們執政黨怎樣做都不會滿意，請你先弄清楚你真正要持有的立場、要問的問題，我再好好回答你，否則我說什麼都是白搭。

May面對為了反對而反對的工黨，擺出十足架式。她最後是瞪大眼睛、看著Jeremy Corbyn，加重語氣說出反問句: "which is it?"

此外，改掉老毛病， break usual habit ，原來是這樣說。

覆盤一下今天所學

• holding the country to ransom
• He cannot have it both ways
• break usual habit

參考資料

當日錄像
https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2019/parliamentary-news-2019/prime-ministers-questions-9-january-2019/

寫於2019-02-24