一句话点评：《小时代N:英国脱欧-无尽的撕逼》
2019.11.05
The Brexit negotiations: Over to EU
How Brussels should respond to Britain’s confused demands
Brexit is a problem that only Britain can fix—but the EU must give it the time to do so
英国退欧谈判 : 移交欧盟
欧盟（布鲁塞尔）应该如何回应英国的困惑要求
英国脱欧是一个只有英国才能解决的问题--但欧盟必须给它时间来解决
Feb 2nd 2019
THERESA MAY has become so used to losing votes in the House of Commons that when, on January 29th, the prime minister got MPs to back her on a motion regarding her Brexit deal, it was treated as a breakthrough. “She did it!” announced one front page the next morning. Another hailed “Theresa’s triumph”.
特蕾莎·梅已经习惯了失去下议院的选票，以至于在1月29日，首相在一项关于她的脱欧协议的议案上得到了议员们的支持，这被视为一个突破。 “她做到了!” 第二天早上，一个头版这样写道。另一个（头版）则欢呼这是 “特里萨的胜利”。
- the House of Commons ： 下议院
- MP： 议员（全写为Member of Parliament ）
- motion： n. 动作；移动；手势；请求；意向；议案 。这里应该理解为议案的意思
- Brexit：n.英国脱欧
Alas, it is anything but. MPs agreed that they would support the exit deal she has agreed to with the European Union, so long as the Irish “backstop” was removed (see article). But on the crucial question of what might replace it—something that negotiators in Brussels have spent almost two years scratching their heads over—the motion suggested no more than unspecified “alternative arrangements”. Mrs May vowed to take this vague demand to have her cake and eat it back to Brussels.
唉，一点也不。议员们一致同意支持她与欧盟达成的脱欧协议，前提是取消爱尔兰的“backstop”(见以前文章)。但在“用什么来取代它”这个关键问题上，布鲁塞尔的谈判代表们花了近两年的时间绞尽脑汁，也只是提出了一些没有具体说明的替代方案。梅发誓要把这一模糊的要求拿回自己的蛋糕，并把它吃回布鲁塞尔 （没怎么看懂，觉得意思是让布鲁塞尔他们自食其果？）。
- scratch one's head over ： 对某事迷惑不解；搔首；为难；搔头皮;挠头；抓耳挠腮；抓头皮 (这里翻译成绞尽脑汁)
She will get short shrift, and she deserves it. A sensible approach to the Brexit talks would have been to agree at home on what kind of deal to go for, then begin negotiations. The prime minister did the opposite, talking to the EU for nearly two years before coming back to find that her treaty could not pass her own Parliament. With less than two months before Brexit day, she now proposes to reopen negotiations on what she herself recently insisted was “the only possible deal”.
她会受到冷遇，这是她应得的。在英国退欧谈判中，一个明智的做法应该是，先在国内就达成什么样的协议达成一致，然后再开始谈判。而她（英国首相）却反其道而行之，她与欧盟进行了近两年的谈判，之后返回英国，却发现她的条约无法在自己的议会获得通过。距离英国退欧还有不到两个月的时间，她现在提议就在她自己最近坚称是“唯一可能达成的协议”上重启谈判（也不知道翻译的是不是正确）。
It is abject. But any exasperated European leaders who are keen for Britain to just go, deal or no deal, should think again. A chaotic exit with no withdrawal agreement would represent a colossal failure by both sides. The EU cannot solve Westminster’s tumultuous politics, let alone the contradictions within the Brexit project. But one thing Britain urgently needs in order to sort out its mess is time—and that is where the EU can help.
这是卑鄙的。但任何恼怒的欧洲领导人都希望英国不管达成还是不达成协议，都应该三思。没有撤退协议的混乱退出对于双方来说都是巨大的失败。欧盟无法解决英国的(威斯敏斯特的)混乱政治，更不用说英国退欧计划内部的矛盾了。但是英国急需来解决它的混乱局面的是时间，欧盟可以在这方面提供帮助。
- let alone ... ：更不用说...
Those Brexiteers urging the EU to make “concessions” on the Irish backstop misunderstand its purpose. Britain wants an independent trade policy, an invisible border with Ireland and no customs checks between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. These three aims are incompatible. If Britain sets its own tariffs, it will mean customs checks on goods passing between it and the EU, of which Ireland is a member. That means inspections at the border. Britain believes that in future it will be possible to do such checks remotely, perhaps using new technology. One day that may be true. Until then, an interim solution is needed. This is the backstop, under which Britain would remain in a customs union with the EU, keeping both borders open but delaying its ability to strike trade deals.
那些敦促欧盟在爱尔兰问题上做出让步的退欧派误解了其目的。英国希望有独立的贸易政策，与爱尔兰之间有无形的边界，以及北爱尔兰与英国大陆之间没有海关检查。这三个目标是不相容的。如果英国设定自己的关税，就意味着要对其与欧盟之间的货物进行海关检查，而爱尔兰是欧盟成员国之一。这意味着要在边境进行检查。英国相信，将来远程检查将成为可能，或许可以使用新技术。也许有一天这是真的。在此之前，需要一个临时解决方案。这是英国与欧盟保持关税同盟关系的备选方案（“Backstop”一直不知道这个怎么翻译，主要还是缺乏相关知识），保持两国边境开放，但推迟达成贸易协议的能力。
- strike trade deal ：达成贸易协议（这里strike的用法可以注意一下）
The backstop thus exists as a logical consequence of Britain’s own negotiating objectives, not European caprice. By definition, it expires when someone comes up with a way to carry out customs checks with no border infrastructure. Hardline Brexiteers’ calls for the backstop to be time-limited are thus not just unrealistic but nonsensical. Beyond more words of reassurance about the arrangement’s temporary nature—which it should ladle on liberally—the EU cannot do much about the backstop.
因此这个Backstop是英国自身谈判目的的必然结果，而非欧洲的反复无常。根据定义，当有人提出在没有边境基础设施情况下进行海关检查的方法时，它就失效了。因此，强硬的退欧派要求限时提供Backstop不仅是不现实的，而且是荒谬的。除了更多关于协议临时性质的保证之外（欧盟应该对此慷慨解囊），欧盟在这方面也无能为力。
- it should ladle on liberally ：它应该大量供应( 要慷慨地施舍 )
- come up with a way ： 想出提出一个方法
- carry out customs check ：进行海关检查
- hardline ： adj. 强硬的；不妥协的
- nonsensical ： adj. 无意义的；荒谬的
- temporary nature ：临时性质
Where it can make a difference is on the timing. Unless Parliament agrees on a deal by March 29th, Britain will fall out of the EU without any exit arrangements in place. Britain itself would suffer most from this. But for the EU, and especially Ireland, it would also be horribly damaging to lose one of its most important members in such circumstances. Parliament this week made clear that it was against leaving with no deal. If Mrs May wants to avoid this fate, she will surely have to ask for more time. The EU should signal that it will agree to her request.
它能产生影响的地方在于时机。除非议会在3月29日前达成协议，否则英国将在没有任何退出安排的情况下退出欧盟。英国自己将会遭受最大的损失。但对于欧盟，尤其是爱尔兰来说，在这种情况下失去一个最重要的成员国也会造成可怕的破坏。 英国议会本周明确表示，它反对在没有达成任何协议的情况下离开欧盟。如果梅想避免这种命运，她肯定会要求更多时间。欧盟应该发出信号，表明它将同意她的要求。
The longer Britain has to sort out its mess, the more chance that it can avoid disaster. Mrs May’s strategy has been to get the hardline Brexiteers in her Conservative Party to back the deal. The vote this week for the cake-based motion, which more or less united Conservative MPs, has helped feed the idea that this is still possible. But the response from Brussels ought to put paid to that thinking. In reality, Mrs May is likely to have more luck winning votes from the opposition. The price of Labour’s support seems to be a permanent customs union. The backstop, as Brexiteers complain, already amounts to something close to this. It is possible to imagine a deal being done, but not in the two months remaining. With more time, Parliament may yet feel its way to a solution. Brexit is a British problem that only Britain can fix. But the EU can give it the time it needs—and it must.
英国收拾烂摊子的时间越长，就越有可能避免灾难。梅的策略是让她所在保守党中的强硬退欧派支持该协议。本周以蛋糕为基础的协议（the cake-based motion 不知道怎么翻译）进行的投票，或多或少地联合了保守党议员，助长了这种想法:这（协议）仍然是可能的。但欧盟（布鲁塞尔）的回应应该让这种想法化为泡影。事实上，梅可能会更幸运地赢得反对党的选票。工党支持的代价似乎是建立一个永久的关税同盟。正如退欧派人士抱怨的那样，这种backstop已经接近于此。可以想象达成这一项协议，但不是在剩下的两个月内。多给点时间，议会可能会找到解决办法。英国脱欧是英国的问题，只有英国才能解决。但欧盟要给它所需的时间，而且必须给它时间（这句话好吊啊，哈哈哈，果然还是英国的报刊）。
- sort out its mess ：收拾残局（烂摊子）
- put paid to that thinking(idea) ： 使这种想法成为泡影
- Labour ： 工党（Labour Party），英国议会第二大党。 英国两大主要执政党之一，英国左翼政党。 保守党（Conservative Party），是英国议会第一大党。
- may yet ： 有望，也许可能，恐怕，会
杂谈
怎么说呢，我一直想把英语学好，经济学人一直算是一个心目中的标尺吧，而且刚读了3篇，感觉有那么点意思（不是说支持它的观点，只是单纯看着好玩，尤其是国外人看我们国家和别的国家的视角），计划一直读下去，一天一篇吧，然后在这简书这里翻译，算是记录自己的成果吧，我的翻译和总结不会都是正确的，因为我也是个弟弟（捂脸），尤其是发现有道翻译的比我好，更是羞愧难当...
原先一直用CSDN写自己的技术博客https://blog.csdn.net/humanking7/，没事在豆瓣写写影评，本来就想在豆瓣上写翻译，但是没想到它不支持Markdown，佛了，所以就迁到这里来了。
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