The mother of all messes 混乱之母
Parliament’s rejection of the Brexit deal has created a crisis. Solving it will need time—and a second referendum
议会否决脱欧协议引起了危机，要解决这个问题需要时间——和第二次的公投
No plan by any modern British government has been so soundly thrashed as the Brexit deal thrown out by Parliament on January 15th. The withdrawal agreement, the centrepiece of Theresa May’s premiership, which she has spent nearly two years hammering out with the European Union, was rejected after five days’ debate by 432 votes to 202. Her own Conservative bankbenchers voted against her by three to one.
thrash: （作为惩罚）毒打，痛打；猛烈摆动；剧烈扭动；翻腾；（比赛中）彻底击败
throw out: 拒绝接受，否决（计划或想法）；拒绝受理（案件）
centrepiece: 最重要的部分；最吸引人的部分
hammer out: （争论或讨论后）达成（协议或解决办法）
在当代英国政府的计划中，没有任何一项计划受到过像脱欧协议那样的全方位惨败，它在1月15日遭到议会否决。脱欧协议对决定特蕾莎·梅首相位置有关键影响，她花了近两年时间与欧盟商讨达成了这一方案，而该协议经过5天的辩论后，以432:202遭到否决。她自己的保守党后座议员也在投票中以3：1反对协议。
长句：No plan (by any modern British government) has been so soundly thrashed as the Brexit deal (thrown out by Parliament on January 15th. )
背景：后座议员backbencher: 按英国下议院的惯例，执政党议会党团领袖、在政府中任职的议员以及反对党影子内阁的成员等重要议员坐在前排，普通议员则坐在后排，故称。（通常不是英国内阁成员的议员）
相关中文报道见：https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-46878087
The mother of parliaments is suffering the mother of all constitutional crises (see Britain section). Three years ago, in the biggest poll in the country’s history, Britons voted in a referendum to leave the eu. Yet Parliament, freshly elected a year later by those same voters, has judged the terms of exit unacceptable. The eu shows little willingness to renegotiate. The prime minister ploughs obdurately on. And if this puzzle cannot be solved by March 29th, Britain will fall out with no deal at all.
suffer: 受苦；受折磨（常和from连用）；经历，经受，遭受（坏事）
plough on: 继续进行，坚持做（艰难或乏味的事）；苦撑
obdurately: 顽固地
英国——“议会之母”正在经历所有宪法危机之母的考验（见英国版块）。三年前，在这个国家历史上规模最大的一次投票中，英国人公投决定离开欧盟。然而一年后由同样一批选民选举出的议会判定脱欧条款不可接受。欧盟未表露重新谈判的意愿。首相固执地坚持继续推进。如果在3月29日前这个难题无法解决，英国将会在毫无协议的情况下退出欧盟。
背景："The mother of parliaments" is a phrase coined by the British politician and reformer John Bright in a speech at Birmingham on 18 January 1865.It was a reference to England. His actual words were: "England is the mother of parliaments". This was reported in The Times on the following day. The expression is often applied to the Parliament of the United Kingdom because of the adoption of the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy by many countries of the former British Empire. “议会之母”是英国政治家、改革家John Bright创造的短语，他在1865年1月18日伯明翰的演讲中提出了这个词，指“英国”。他的原话是“英国是议会之母”。第二天，这句话在泰晤士报刊登。因为英国是世界上第一个建立议会制的国家，之后，美国、法国等一些国家都在资产阶级革命或改良运动后效仿英国的威斯敏斯特议会民主模式。
the mother of all constitutional crises没查到什么意思，个人理解是所有宪法危机中最本源的一种，“宪法危机”(Constitutional crisis)主要指政府部门间因根本宪法问题的分歧而又不能诉诸正常的政治和法律途径解决时产生的状态。即后面所指的，因宪（公投脱欧）政（议会反对）纠纷而使宪政制度、宪法权力和宪政秩序面临严重威胁。
To avoid that catastrophe, the priority must be to ask the EU for more time. But even with the clock on their side, MPs seem unlikely to agree on a solution to Brexit’s great riddle: what exit terms, if any, truly satisfy the will of the people? With every week in which MPs fail to answer this question, it becomes clearer that the people themselves must decide, in a second referendum.
为避免那样的灾难发生，首先必须向欧盟要求获得更多时间。但即使所剩时间无几，英国下议院议员似乎也不太可能就脱欧的最大难题达成一致：什么样的脱欧条款（如果有的话），能真正满足人民的意愿？随着每周下议院议员都无法回答这个问题，这点得越来越明显：人们必须自己来做出决定——在第二次公投中。
The rout this week was the result of two years of political misjudgment. The referendum of 2016 was won by just 52% to 48%. Yet rather than consult the defeated side, Mrs May pursued a hardline Brexit, hurriedly drawn up with a handful of advisers and calibrated to please her Conservative Party. After she lost her majority in 2017 the need to build a consensus became clearer still, but she doubled down. Even after Parliament established its right to vote on the final deal, she didn’t budge, instead trying (and failing) to frustrate Parliament’s vote by running down the clock. The doggedness that has won her many admirers now looks like pig-headedness. The prime minister’s promise after this week’s crushing defeat to work with opposition MPs comes two years too late.
rout: 溃败，彻底失败
hardline: 强硬的，不妥协的
handful: 一把（之量）；少数，少量
draw up: 起草，草拟
calibrate: 划分刻度，标定
still: （程度或数量）还要，更加
budge: （使）改变主意；（使）轻微移动
doggedness: 犟劲
pig-headedness: the quality or act of unreasonably refusing to change your plan or opinion, or to listen to different opinions 愚顽
crushing: 非常严重的
本周的溃败是两年来政治判断错误的结果。2016年的公投，脱欧派仅仅以52%对48%获胜。然而梅并未和失败方协商，而是采取强硬的脱欧之道，她急匆匆地与少数顾问一起拟定方案，并进行调整来取悦她的保守党。2017年她丢失多数党席位后，建立共识的必要性变得更加明确，但她却翻倍停叫。即使在议会确立了拥有最终协议的投票权之后，她也没有改变主意，而是试图（并且失败了）通过拖延时间来挫败议会的投票。之前为她的犟劲为她赢得诸多仰慕者，如今看来却像愚顽。在本周的惨败后，首相承诺会与反对党的下议院议员合作，这份承诺晚了两年。
长句 (Yet rather than consult the defeated side,) Mrs May pursued a hardline Brexit, (hurriedly drawn up with a handful of advisers and calibrated to please her Conservative Party.) hurriedly后面的是定语从句，draw up a hardline Brexit with ..和calibrate the hardline Brexit to ...
The prime minister’s promise (after this week’s crushing defeat) to work with opposition MPs comes two years too late.
背景：double down: in the card game of blackjack, to double a bet (= amount of money risked) after seeing your first two cards, in exchange for only one more card 在看到自己前两张牌后，将赌注加成两倍，然后再向发牌人要一张牌，而且之后不能再要牌的玩法
But the crisis is not just about poor leadership. Brexit has exposed two deeper problems. One concerns the difficulties that will face any country that tries to “take back control”, as the Leave campaign put it, in a globalised, interconnected world. If you take back the right to set your own rules and standards, it will by definition become harder to do business with countries that use different ones. If you want to trade, you will probably end up following the rules of a more powerful partner—which for Britain means the EU or America—only without a say in setting them. Brexit thus amounts to taking back control in a literal sense, but losing control in a meaningful one. Leavers are right that the EU is an increasingly unappealing place, with its Italian populists, French gilets jaunes, stuttering German economy (see next page) and doddery, claret-swilling uber-bureaucrats in Brussels. But they could not be more wrong in their judgment that the EU’s ominous direction of travel makes it wise for Britain to abandon its seat there.
by definition: 根据/按照定义;
amount to: 共计; 意味着; 发展成; 折合;
stuttering: 结结巴巴地说( stutter的现在分词 ); 不顺畅的工作，时断时续地移动;
doddery: （通常指因年老而）步履蹒跚的，走路摇摇晃晃的
claret: （法国波尔多地区的）干红葡萄酒
swill: （常指为了清洗而）冲，涮；大口地喝，痛饮，畅饮（尤指酒） claret-swilling: 大口痛饮美酒，比喻奢侈至极的生活
uber: （用于名词前）极度的，超级的，极好的，极成功的
ominous: 恶兆的，不祥的，不吉利的
但危机并不仅仅是关于无力的领导。脱欧暴露了两个更深层次的问题。一是关于在全球化、相互关联的世界里，任何试图“收回控制权”的国家（正如脱欧运动所为）都将面临困难。如果你要收回权力，设置自己的规则和标准，那么顾名思义，要与使用其他规则标准的国家做生意将变得更困难。如果你想要进行贸易，最终可能要遵守更强大伙伴制定的规则——对英国来说意味着欧盟或美国——而在制定这些规则时却没有话语权。因此脱欧在字面意义上，意味着英国要夺回控制权，但在实际意义上，意味着失去控制权。脱欧派认为欧盟正日益失去吸引力，这个想法是正确的，意大利有民粹主义者，法国有黄马甲运动，德国经济处于停滞，欧盟总部布鲁塞尔步履蹒跚、穷侈极奢，充满极度官僚主义。但是，他们以欧盟朝着不利方向前进作为理由，判断英国放弃欧盟席位才是明智之举，这个想法大错特错。
长句：
1. One concerns the difficulties that will face any country that tries to “take back control” (, as the Leave campaign put it, )in a globalised, interconnected world. 主干是One concerns the difficulties, 定语从句修饰 difficulties, that will face any country， 再接一个定语从句修饰 country, that tries to “take back control” in a globalised, interconnected world.)
2. If you want to trade, you will probably end up following the rules of a more powerful partner (—which for Britain means the EU or America—) (only without a say in setting them.) them 指the rules of a more powerful partner， 即更强大的伙伴在制定这些规则时，英国没有话语权，但最终却需要遵守。
3. But they could not be more wrong in their judgment (that the EU’s ominous direction of travel makes it wise for Britain to abandon its seat there.) that引导的同位语从语修饰judgement, 这个判断是the EU’s ominous direction (of travel) makes it wise for Britain to abandon its seat there. seat there指抛弃欧盟的席位，主干是一个sth make it a. for sb. to do的句型。
The second essential problem Brexit has exposed concerns democracy. Britain has a long history of representative democracy, in which MPs are elected by voters to take decisions on their behalf. The referendum of 2016 was a rarer dash of direct democracy, when the public decided on a matter of policy. Today’s crisis has been caused by the two butting up against each other. The referendum gave a clear and legitimate command to leave the EU. To ignore it would be to subvert the will of the people. Yet the people’s representatives in Parliament have made an equally clear and legitimate judgment that Mrs May’s Brexit deal is not in their constituents’ interests. To sideline MPs, as Mrs May has all along tried to do, would be no less a perversion of democracy.
dash:飞奔，迅跑，急驰； a dash: （尤指添加的流质食品）少量，少许
butt: vi/vt 用头（或角）顶
subvert: to try to destroy or damage something, especially an established political system 破坏，动摇
constituent: （某选区的）选民，选举人
sideline: 使退出比赛，使停止参赛；使靠边；使不再发挥重要作用；排挤
perversion: 歪曲，曲解
脱欧暴露出的第二个重要问题是关于D主。英国的代议制民主历史非常悠久，在这种制度下，选民选出下议院议员，议员代表选民做出决定。2016年的公投是一种相对少见的直接D主，由民众决定政策。如今的危机正是由于这两者（直接D主和间接D主）互相角力而产生。公投给出了清晰合法的脱欧指令。要忽视这个指令将会违背人民的意愿。然而议会中的人民代表们做出了同样清晰合法的判断，认为梅的脱欧协议不符合宪法利益。阻止国会议员发挥作用，正如梅一直以来尝试做的，将同样是对D主的歪曲。
背景：间接民主(Indirect/ Representative democracy),又称为“代议制民主”, 即人民通过其代表来进行统治,而不是直接进行统治。
The prime minister has piled moral pressure on MPs to back the deal anyway, arguing that even if they don’t much like it, it is what their constituents voted for. It is not so simple. Mrs May’s deal is not as bad as some of her critics make out, but it is far from what was promised in 2016. Ejection from the single market, the decline of industries ranging from finance to carmaking, the destabilisation of Northern Ireland and an exit bill of some $50bn: none of this was advertised in the campaign. Voters may be entirely happy with this outcome (opinion polls suggest otherwise). But there is nothing to say that the vote to leave must entail support for Mrs May’s particular version of leaving. That is why all sides can claim to represent the “real” will of the people. For MPs to back a deal that they judge harmful out of respect for an earlier referendum which issued a vague instruction would be neither representative democracy nor direct democracy—it would be one doing a bad impression of the other.
pile: 把…堆积（或堆叠）起来
make out sth: 开出；填写
entail: 使必要；牵涉
首相已经向国会议员施加了重重道德压力，要求无论如何都要支持协定，她争论说即使他们不怎么喜欢这份协议，这是他们的选民投票要求的。事实没有那么简单。梅的协议并没有她的某些批评者所声称的那么糟糕，但也远远达不到2016年承诺的水准。退出单一市场、从金融到汽车制造业，各行业的产业下滑，北爱尔兰的局势不稳，还有500亿美元的退出费：没有一样在竞选时进行过宣传。投票者或许完全满意于这样的结果（民调显示正好相反）。但不能说投票决定脱欧就意味着必须支持梅的特定脱欧协议版本。这就是为什么任何一个派别都能声称，他们代表了“真正”的民意。对国会议员来说，要支持一个他们判断为有害处的协议——这个判断是甚于对早期公投的尊重，那次公投给出的指示很模糊——将既不是间接D主，也不是直接D主，它将是一个对另一种D主留下糟糕印象的形式。
长句：For MPs to back a deal (that they judge harmful out of respect for an earlier referendum) (which issued a vague instruction) would be neither representative democracy nor direct democracy—it would be one (doing a bad impression of the other.)定语从语套定语从语，that they judge harmful out of respect for an earlier referendum修饰deal，which issued a vague instruction修饰referendum。
The first step to getting out of this mess is to stop the clock. Because Mrs May’s deal is dead and a new one cannot be arranged in the ten remaining weeks, the priority should be to avoid falling out on March 29th with no deal, which would be bad for all of Europe and potentially disastrous for Britain. If Mrs May will not ask for an extension, Parliament should vote to give itself the power to do so. This desperate measure would up-end a long convention in which government business takes precedence over backbenchers’. But if the prime minister stays on the road to no deal, MPs have a duty to seize the wheel.
up-end:（使） 颠倒；倒立;
precedence：优先权; 位次; 领先; 地位先后，级别高低; take ~ over：优先于
要摆脱这堆混乱的第一步就是停下倒计时。因为梅的协议已经是死路，而新的协议没法在剩下的10周内安排好，所以优先项应该是避免在3月29日无协议硬脱欧，硬脱欧将会对整个欧洲有坏影响，并对英国产生潜在的毁灭性打击。如果梅不要求延期，那么议会应该投票赋予自己权力这么做。这个绝望的举措会颠覆一项长期传统，那就是政府事务优先于后座议员事务。但如果首相坚持无协议脱欧，国会议会有责任把握方向。
With more time, perhaps a deal might be found that both Parliament and the EU can agree on. Either a permanent customs union or a Norwegian-style model (which this newspaper endorsed a year ago as the least-bad version of Brexit) might squeak through. But both would demand compromises, such as Britain relinquishing the right to sign its own trade deals or maintaining free movement, that contradict some Leave campaign promises.
squeak: 短促地尖叫，吱吱叫; 发出尖厉刺耳的噪音; 告密; ~ through：侥幸取胜; 勉强通过; 勉强通过,侥幸取胜;
relinquish：弃; 让出（权利，财产等）; 放开，松手; 撤离;
如果有更多的时间，或许他们能找到这样一项协议，让议会和欧盟都达成一致——或许是永久性海关联盟，或许是挪威模式（这种模式去年被报纸赞誉为最不糟糕的脱欧版本）总能获得通过。但这两者都需要妥协，例如英国放弃签署单独贸易协定的权力，或是维护流动性自由，那些行为与竞选承诺背道而驰。
背景：挪威模式：挪威不是欧盟成员，但在英国脱欧期间常常被提及，尤其是主张脱欧的英国人常常拿挪威举例，“看！挪威就不是欧盟成员国，但他们多幸福！”在英国人看来，富裕的挪威与欧盟的关系若即若离，恰到好处。
free movement: 参考自《四个流动自由是欧盟精髓》 https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/32385310
That is why the path to any deal, whether Mrs May’s or a revamped one, must involve the voters. The give and take that Brexit requires mean that no form of exit will resemble the prospectus the public were recklessly sold in 2016. It may be that voters will accept one of these trade-offs; it may be they will not. But the will of the people is too important to be merely guessed at by squabbling MPs. Parliament’s inability to define and agree on what the rest of the country really wants makes it clearer than ever that the only practical and principled way out of the mess is to go back to the people, and ask.
revamp: 修改；改进
prospectus: （学校或企业的）简介，章程
give and take: 双方迁就; 相互让步; 互相忍让; 交谈;
squabble: v.（为小事而） 争论，吵嘴;
principled: 有道德（原则）的；原则性强的
这就是为什么任何一项协议——不管是梅的或是修正后的协议，都必须包括选民的参与。脱欧协议的互相让步意味着任何形式的脱欧都不会类似于2016年公众鲁莽的出售章程。或许选民会接受其中一项交易，或许他们不会。但人民的意愿太过重要，不能仅仅由扯皮的议员来猜测。议会无法去确定并同意这个国家的其余人民想要什么，这让一切变得更清楚——要摆脱这堆混乱，唯一实际并富有原则性的方法就是回到人民中去，并且问他们要什么。
长句：Parliament’s inability (to define and agree on what the rest of the country really wants) makes it clearer than ever that the only practical and principled way (out of the mess) is to go back to the people, and ask.
END