英語資源頻道為大家整理的china daily 雙語新聞：卡梅倫為何發(fā)表公投演講，供大家學習參考:)
There is something surreal – no, really quite barmy – about the European debate in Britain. Five years after the crash, the economy is still flat on its back. Repair of the nation’s finances has stalled. The health of the neighbouring eurozone is far from assured and its future shape is unclear. David Cameron’s response? To promise a vote (though not for another five years or so) on British membership of the EU.
英國關于歐洲的辯論有些荒誕——不，其實相當瘋狂。在金融危機爆發(fā)5年后，英國經(jīng)濟仍萎靡不振。英國財政狀況的修復一籌莫展。鄰近的歐元區(qū)遠未恢復健康，其未來形態(tài)仍不明朗。戴維·卡梅倫(David Cameron)的對策？承諾就英國是否退出歐盟(EU)舉行投票（盡管還得等5年左右）。
The rest of the world looks on in profound bafflement. The US has felt moved to warn the prime minister that if he takes Britain out of the EU he will wave goodbye to influence in Washington. In Beijing this week, I heard Chinese officials express polite bemusement that Britain could detach itself from the world’s most important economic bloc.
全球其他國家對此感到深度困惑。美國覺得有必要警告稱，如果卡梅倫帶領英國脫離歐盟，他會失去在華盛頓的影響力。最近，我在北京聽到中國官員禮貌而困惑地表示，英國怎么能讓自己脫離全球最重要的經(jīng)濟集團？
Mr Cameron’s much-hyped speech on the subject will settle nothing. It represents an expression of impotence – a cry of pain almost – rather than a strategy. Mr Cameron wants a “new settlement” so Britain can repatriate powers from Brussels but keep privileged access to the single market. He promises a renegotiation and a referendum to ratify it if he wins the 2015 election.
卡梅倫的演講得到大肆炒作，但它不會解決任何問題。它只是表達了一種無力感（幾乎是一種痛苦的哭泣），而不是一種戰(zhàn)略?？穫愊胍环N“新的解決方案”，讓英國可以從布魯塞爾收回權力，但同時保留進入單一市場的特權。他承諾，如果在2015年大選中獲勝，就將啟動與歐盟的重新談判，并就談判結(jié)果舉行公投。
Yet the speech is destined to disappoint. It is the place where the irresistible force of rising Tory party europhobia meets the immovable object of geopolitical reality. Britain’s allies, trading partners and investors are promised several years of uncertainty while Mr Cameron’s Conservatives wrestle with the effort to reconcile the irreconcilable.
然而這場演講注定令人失望。因為它暴露了保守黨日益憎惡歐盟的情緒遭遇無法撼動的地緣政治現(xiàn)實。在卡梅倫的保守黨竭力調(diào)和不可調(diào)和的矛盾之際，英國的盟友、貿(mào)易伙伴和投資者現(xiàn)在面臨多年的不確定性。
The prime minister says he wants to stay in the EU. The, as yet unspecified, opt-outs and concessions he seeks would make Britain “more comfortable” in the union. Yet asked whether Britain will still be a member 10 years hence, the best George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, offers is that he “hopes” so. For many of the deeply eurosceptic Tory ministers and MPs now driving policy, a referendum is the route to the exit rather than a better deal.
卡梅倫表示，他希望英國留在歐盟。他尋求的尚未指明的“退出選擇”和讓步，將讓英國在歐盟“更加自在”。然而，在被問及英國10年后是否仍會是歐盟成員國的時候，英國財政大臣喬治·奧斯本(George Osborne)所能給出的答案是，他“希望”還是。對目前推動政策的許多對歐洲深感懷疑的保守黨部長和議員來說，公投是退出歐盟之路，而不是要達成一個更有利的協(xié)議。
Britain’s partners accept advancing political and economic integration within the eurozone will necessarily change the relationship. Germany’s Angela Merkel is sympathetic to the idea that single currency “outs” need safeguards to protect their voice in the wider counsels of the union – most obviously in decisions about the single market. As irritated as European leaders often are by British exceptionalism, there is no great continental move to push Mr Cameron out. They may sometimes pretend otherwise, but even the French see advantages in perfidious Albion remaining in the club.
英國的合作伙伴承認，推進歐元區(qū)內(nèi)部的政治和經(jīng)濟一體化必然會改變關系。德國的安格拉·默克爾(Angela Merkel)同情如下觀點：歐元區(qū)以外的歐盟成員國需要相應保障措施，以保護他們在歐盟整體事務（最明顯的就是有關單一市場的決定）中的話語權。盡管歐洲領導人經(jīng)常對英國“例外主義”感到惱火，但他們沒有采取大的動作迫使卡梅倫退出歐盟?；蛟S他們有時會假裝這么做，但即便是法國也認為讓三心二意的英國留在歐盟是有益的。
Ms Merkel et al, however, have their own red lines. Britain already has a clutch of “opt-outs” ranging from the Schengen area of border-free travel to the euro. If Mr Cameron’s price now is repudiation of past commitments and obligations, then it is too high. Sure, there can be talks about social legislation and regional policy, but the unravelling of the union’s core “acquis” – or accumulated legislation – is a bridge even Britain’s best European friends are unwilling to cross.
然而，默克爾等人也是有底線的。從跨境自由旅行的申根協(xié)定到歐元，英國已經(jīng)享有眾多“退出選擇”。如果卡梅倫現(xiàn)在的要價是背棄過去的承諾和義務，那么這種要價顯然太高了。沒錯，各方可以就社會立法和地區(qū)政策進行談判，但如果要對歐盟的核心章程（即多年積累的法律）動大手術，那么就連英國的歐洲朋友也不愿跨越這道橋。
Grand strategy has never been the prime minister’s forte, but he must understand this. So why the speech? He is held prisoner of fear of a great rupture in his party akin to convulsions about the Corn Laws in the 19th century and imperial trade preferences early in the 20th. Now, as then, an argument about Britain’s place in the world has become enmeshed in a neuralgic Tory debate about national identity and sovereignty.
宏大戰(zhàn)略從來不是卡梅倫的強項，但他肯定明白這一點。那么為何發(fā)表這種演講？原因是他擔心保守黨出現(xiàn)巨大分裂，就像19世紀因《谷物法》(Corn Laws)和20世紀初因帝國貿(mào)易優(yōu)惠問題造成的分裂一樣。現(xiàn)在和當時一樣，關于英國在全球地位的爭論，與保守黨圍繞國家認同和主權的令人頭疼的辯論扯到了一起。
Britain’s departure from the EU is for now a possibility rather than a probability. Nick Clegg, leader of the Tories’ Liberal Democrat coalition partner, repudiates Mr Cameron’s plan. After a period when it also struck a eurosceptic pose, the Labour party is resisting the temptation to back a referendum. Douglas Alexander, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, this week described the EU as a vital multiplier of British interests and values. And a Tory majority in 2015 is a far from obvious outcome given the dismal state of the economy.
就目前而言，英國退出歐盟只是一種可能性，而不是概率很大的事件。自由民主黨（保守黨的盟友）領導人尼克·克萊格(Nick Clegg)并不贊同卡梅倫的計劃。在擺出懷疑歐洲的姿態(tài)一段時間后，工黨抵制住了支持公投的誘惑。工黨外交事務發(fā)言人道格拉斯·亞歷山大(Douglas Alexander)最近將歐盟形容為英國利益和價值觀的關鍵倍增器。鑒于英國經(jīng)濟狀態(tài)低迷，2015年保守黨能否以絕對多數(shù)贏得大選還是一個未知數(shù)。
The UK Independence party, which advocates complete EU withdrawal, adds fuel to the fire of Tory europhobia. But though they do not much like the EU, voters may prove more pragmatic than polls suggest. It is one thing to denounce Brussels’ meddling; another to risk prosperity and jobs by pulling up the drawbridge against Britain’s most important trading and investment partners.
主張退出歐盟的英國獨立黨(UKIP)，助燃了保守黨內(nèi)憎惡歐盟的情緒。但盡管英國選民不那么喜歡歐盟，但他們可能比民調(diào)所顯示的更為務實。指責布魯塞爾的干預是一回事，同英國最重要的貿(mào)易和投資伙伴斷絕關系，拿自己的美好生活和就業(yè)當兒戲，則是另一回事。
The danger is that, in bowing to the populist clamour, Mr Cameron has created a political dynamic that leads to departure, while Europe is being made a scapegoat for Britain’s self-inflicted economic ills. The prime minister’s partners are simply not prepared to see their plans for “more” Europe held to ransom by Britain’s demands for “l(fā)ess” Europe.
危險在于，卡梅倫在屈從于民粹主義喧囂的同時，創(chuàng)造了一種最終導致英國退出歐盟的政治勢力，而歐洲成為英國自己造成的經(jīng)濟困境的替罪羊。卡梅倫在歐盟的同僚們絕不會讓他們“增加歐洲含量”的計劃，被英國“減少歐洲含量”的要求劫持。
The eurosceptics hold Margaret Thatcher as their champion. She was certainly tough on those who imagined the EU’s future as a federal superstate. But behind the rhetoric, she held on to a hard-headed view of the national interest. She also understood the political nature of the union. Calling for a Yes vote in a 1975 referendum, she said the case for membership rested on Europe’s role in amplifying British power. The EU opened “windows on the world” that otherwise would be closing after the end of empire.
歐洲懷疑論者將瑪格麗特·撒切爾(Margaret Thatcher)尊為他們的旗手。撒切爾確實對那些認為歐盟未來將發(fā)展為一個超級聯(lián)邦國家的人態(tài)度強硬。但在嚴厲措辭的背后，她對國家利益有著清醒的看法。她也明白歐盟的政治性質(zhì)。撒切爾在1975年的公投中呼吁支持英國加入歐洲共同體(European Community)，她表示，加入歐洲共同體的理由在于，歐洲有助于放大英國的實力。歐盟打開了英國“通向世界的窗口”——大英帝國瓦解后，英國本來失去了這個窗口。
Even at the height of her confrontation with Jacques Delors, then?European Commission president, Mrs Thatcher understood the stark political realities facing a middle-ranking European nation. As she said in her infamous Bruges speech: “Britain does not dream of some cosy, isolated existence on the fringes of the European Community. Our destiny is in Europe, as part of the Community”. There is a sentiment for her self-chosen heirs to reflect on.
即便在撒切爾與時任歐盟委員會(European Commission)主席雅克·德洛爾(Jacques Delors)發(fā)生最激烈沖突的時候，她也明白一個中等的歐洲國家面臨的嚴峻政治現(xiàn)實。正如她在的布魯日演講中所言：“英國并不夢想舒適、孤立地存在于歐洲共同體的邊緣。我們的命運注定在歐洲，作為共同體的一部分?！弊悦鼮槿銮袪杺魅说娜耍斜匾販匾幌逻@種情懷。