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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
The long, slow Brexit story has just sped up. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party just won a decisive victory in parliamentary elections. This morning, he promised to end three years of political paralysis1 in the United Kingdom over its exit from the European Union. And he says it's going to happen fast.
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PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON: I will put an end to all that nonsense, and we will get Brexit done on time by the 31 of January — no ifs, no buts, no maybes.
MARTIN: The vote represents a major shakeup in British politics. We've got NPR's Frank Langfitt on the line from London. Good morning, Frank.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE2: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: No doubt a huge win for Boris Johnson. How did he make it happen?
LANGFITT: Well, he — you know, it's interesting. The Conservatives picked up 47 seats. This is the biggest majority since Margaret Thatcher's win in 1987. And the way he did it was just what you heard, that line he said, get Brexit done. He had a laserlike focus on this slogan, and it was very effective. And the reason for that is also what you were just mentioning earlier, and that is over three years of political paralysis. People are exhausted3 here. I mean, when I — I've been travelling around the country for the last number of weeks talking to voters, and not only were people who voted in 2016 in the referendum to leave the European Union who wanted out of Europe, those people, it really appealed to, that line from Johnson. But even people who wanted to stay in the European Union felt that the country just needed to move on, even if it would do economic damage, even if they were against this. They just felt enough is enough. And I think that that message really was this — the most important thing that Johnson did in the campaign.
MARTIN: I mean, what happened to Labour? I mean, they ran on a very different kind of platform. But they seem to have just collapsed4.
LANGFITT: Yeah, they did. They — and I thought they would do badly. I didn't think they would do as badly as they did. Rachel, it's the worst showing since 1935 for them. So they have dug a deep hole for themselves. And there are two things that happened here. One is that Jeremy Corbyn remarkably5 — I understand why he did it — he would not take a position on Brexit, which, of course, is the biggest issue to face the country in decades. And the reason he did that is he had voters, Labour voters on both sides, who had different feelings. He didn't want to alienate6 either side. So his platform, which was very hard to explain on the doorstep — as people say here in British politics, you know, when you're kind of pitching to ordinary voters — he said, what we'll do is I'll get a new withdrawal7 agreement, I'll renegotiate this with Brussels, and then we will take it back to the people for a referendum, either to accept it or stay in the European Union. That just did not sell.
The other thing is that Corbyn politically is pretty far to the left here. He wanted to nationalize the railroads, which are problematic. Corbyn has a point. But he was also talking about tuition-free universities, which is very appealing, but people weren't sure that they could pay for it. And he also — his negative ratings were 61% in a recent poll. So he really was a drag on the party.
MARTIN: Explain how this changes British politics. I mean, Johnson really carved together this surprising coalition8 representing a real change in the political landscape, right?
LANGFITT: Yeah. I mean, I think the political landscape is completely revamped. And what I'd like to focus on is what's known as the red wall up north of here in the north of England and in the Midlands, even northern Wales. Labour had this sort of traditional heartland — industrial, coal mining, factories, things like that — that they'd always been able to rely on. And a lot of them had voted to leave the EU. And so Johnson was able to really go after that area and pick up very big wins. And it's very reminiscent, actually, of what Donald Trump9 did in 2016 in the upper Midwest. And, of course, that cost the Democrats10 the White House.
MARTIN: The other big story of election night was the strong showing of the Scottish National Party, which ran on this platform of holding another referendum on Scottish independence. How likely is that?
LANGFITT: Well, not anytime soon, but this is a very serious issue. And I think people are expecting, in the next couple of years, you're going to see a constitutional showdown between Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, and Boris Johnson. What Nicola Sturgeon is already arguing this morning, because they did very well, is that this was a vote for another independence referendum. And their argument up in Scotland, the Scottish National Party, is we voted to stay in the EU. You're dragging us out. We want an option to choose our own path. So in the next couple of years, I think that is going to come to head one way or the other. So it's interesting that you talk about Brexit getting done. It's not done at all. The tremors11, the reverberation12 of this, is going to go on for a long time.
MARTIN: NPR's Frank Langfitt reporting from London. Thank you so much.
LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Rachel.
冗长又缓慢的英国脱欧进程开始加速。英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊及其领导的保守党在英国议会选举中赢得了决定性胜利。今天上午,他承诺结束英国因脱离欧盟而产生的长达三年的政治瘫痪。他同时表示,这会迅速进行。
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英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊:我将结束所有这些无稽之谈,我们将在1月31日之前按时完成英国脱欧——没有如果,没有但是,没有不可能。
马丁:选举结果表明了英国政坛的重大变革。下面NPR新闻的弗兰克·朗菲特将从伦敦和我们连线。早上好,弗兰克。
弗兰克·朗菲特连线:早上好,蕾切尔。
马丁:毫无疑问,这是鲍里斯·约翰逊的巨大胜利。他是如何做到的?
朗菲特:这值得注意。英国保守党获得了47个席位。这是自玛格丽特·撒切尔在1987年获胜以来的最大胜利。约翰逊所用的方法就是刚刚大家听到的,完成英国脱欧。他的竞选口号像激光一样专注,同时也非常有效。原因你刚才也提到了,英国经历了三年的政治瘫痪。英国民众已经筋疲力尽。过去几周,我一直在英国各地穿梭,对选民进行采访,我了解到,不仅是2016年在脱欧公投中投票支持英国退出欧盟的选民被约翰逊的这一口号所吸引。就连希望英国留在欧盟的选民都认为,英国需要继续前进,尽管这意味着经济损失,尽管他们持反对意见。他们只是觉得受够了。我认为这是约翰逊在竞选中做得最重要的一件事。
马丁:那工党呢?他们的竞选纲领与保守党截然不同。看起来他们的计划失败了。
朗菲特:对,没错。我想到他们会表现不佳。但我没想到他们会表现得这么差。蕾切尔,工党本次选举的成绩是1935年以来最差的。他们给自已挖了个深坑。有两个原因。其一,杰里米·科尔宾没有就英国脱欧采取立场,而这是英国数十年来面临的最大问题,不过我能理解科尔宾这样做的理由。原因是,工党选民在这一问题上看法不同,既有选民支持脱欧,也有选民支持留欧。他不想疏远任何一方。因此,他的纲领难以说明——英国民众说,这是在英国论坛试图争取普通选民的支持——科尔宾说,我们将达成新的脱欧协议,我会与欧盟重新谈判,然后我们会将协议带回英国进行全民公投,让民众决定是接受协议还是留在欧盟。但这种策略没有说服力。
其二,从政治角度来说,科尔宾与左翼相距甚远。他希望将铁路国有化,这可能会产生问题。科尔宾有理由。他还提出大学免学费,这非常有吸引力,但人们不确定他们是否会支付。在最近的民调中,他的负面评价达到61%。可以说,他是工党的拖累。
马丁:请解释一下这会如何改变英国政坛。约翰逊组建了出人意料的联盟,这表明了英国政治版图的真正变革,对吧?
朗菲特:对。我认为英国的政治版图已经彻底翻新。我想主要说一下英格兰中北部的“红墙”地带,那里甚至比威尔士还要靠北。这里是工党的传统核心地带——拥有工业、煤矿、工厂等——这是他们一直能依赖的地区。但这里的许多选民投票支持英国脱离欧盟。因此,约翰逊可以聚焦这一地区,继而获得大胜。实际上,这令人想起了唐纳德·特朗普2016年在上中西部地区采取的战略。当然,那令民主党失去了白宫。
马丁:选举之夜发生的另一件大事是,以举行另一场苏格兰独立公投为竞选纲领的苏格兰民族党表现强劲。独立的可能性有多大?
朗菲特:近期不太可能,不过这是一个非常重要的问题。我想人们预期,未来几年我们会看到妮古拉·斯特金和鲍里斯·约翰逊之间的宪法对决。由于在选举中表现出色,今天上午,妮古拉·斯特金已经表明,这是支持再次举行独立公投的投票。苏格兰民族党的主张是,我们投票支持留在欧盟。但你们却要将我们拖出欧盟。我们希望能自行决定我们自已的路线。因此,我认为未来几年这会以这样或那样的方式制造问题。有意思的是,你刚才提到英国脱欧即将完成。其实根本没有完成。其带来的震动和回响将持续很长时间。
马丁:以上是NPR新闻的弗兰克·朗菲特从伦敦带来的报道。非常谢谢你。
朗菲特:不客气,蕾切尔。
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paralysis
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n.麻痹(症);瘫痪(症) | |
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2
byline
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n.署名;v.署名 | |
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3
exhausted
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adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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4
collapsed
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adj.倒塌的 | |
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5
remarkably
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ad.不同寻常地,相当地 | |
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6
alienate
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vt.使疏远,离间;转让(财产等) | |
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7
withdrawal
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n.取回,提款;撤退,撤军;收回,撤销 | |
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8
coalition
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n.结合体,同盟,结合,联合 | |
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9
trump
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n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭 | |
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10
democrats
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n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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11
tremors
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震颤( tremor的名词复数 ); 战栗; 震颤声; 大地的轻微震动 | |
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reverberation
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反响; 回响; 反射; 反射物 | |
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