It’s possible that Brexit — treated strictly as an intellectual concept — is a brilliant idea. However, it was sold with falsehoods and is now being mismanaged. To cite just a few Brexiter politicians: David Davis sketched a deal with the EU as simply a matter of a quick visit to Berlin; Daniel Hannan said that obviously the UK wouldn’t leave the European single market; and Nigel Farage predicted that other countries would follow Britain out of Europe. It hasn’t quite turned out like that. More than a year after the referendum, the cabinet still can’t agree on what kind of Brexit it wants, or when. The British state is steaming towards its third disaster in 15 years, after the Iraq war and the financial crisis. Like both previous disasters, Brexit reveals three enduring flaws in the UK’s workings.
嚴(yán)格作為一個(gè)理論概念看待，英國(guó)退歐(Brexit)有可能成為一個(gè)偉大的想法。然而，這個(gè)想法被退歐陣營(yíng)用謊言兜售給選民，如今又處置失當(dāng)。僅以幾位退歐派政客說(shuō)過(guò)的話為例：戴維?戴維斯(David Davis)以為，與歐盟達(dá)成協(xié)議只需要跑一趟柏林；丹尼爾?漢南(Daniel Hannan)稱，英國(guó)顯然不會(huì)脫離歐洲單一市場(chǎng)；奈杰爾?法拉奇(Nigel Farage)認(rèn)為其他國(guó)家將跟隨英國(guó)退出歐盟。但結(jié)果遠(yuǎn)非如此。退歐公投過(guò)去逾一年后，內(nèi)閣仍無(wú)法就其想要什么樣的退歐以及何時(shí)退歐達(dá)成一致。繼伊拉克戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)和全球金融危機(jī)之后，英國(guó)正在滑向15年以來(lái)第三場(chǎng)災(zāi)難。像此前的兩場(chǎng)災(zāi)難一樣，英國(guó)退歐暴露了英國(guó)在運(yùn)行上的三大根本缺陷。