【经济学人】白芝浩专栏---英国政治环境已变得极其恶劣 [英国媒体]

British politics has become dangerously bad-tempered

英国政治环境已变得极其恶劣

And if you don’t agree you can get stuffed  

谁有意见谁就滚



Jul 22nd 2017  2017年7月22日

THE end of the current parliamentary session, on July 20th, is a good time to reflect on the mood of British politics. Several things catch the attention: anxiety about the future, exasperation at the childish antics of senior politicians, confusion about Brexit. But the most striking thing is anger. Politicians are angry with each other. The public is angry with politicians. The internet throbs with vitriol. American historians have dubbed the period after the war of 1812 “the era of good feelings”. The current period in British politics could be dubbed the era of bad feelings.

随着7月20日议会夏季休会的开始，也是时候好好反省一下英国的政治环境了。夺人眼球的有以下几个方面：对未来的焦虑、对一些政坛老油条幼稚举动的恼怒，以及对脱欧的迷茫。但除此外，最吸引人的是愤怒槽，政客们的愤怒槽已积累到互相撕逼的程度，公众群体对政客的愤怒槽也已爆棚，互联网上更是充斥着尖酸刻薄的言辞。美国历史学家曾经将1812年第二次独立战争后一段和平发展时期称为“和睦年代”，而目前英国的政治现状，按照当时标准，可以称之为“撕逼年代”

This week the cabinet infighting became so vicious that Theresa May, the prime minister, was forced to tell her ministers to shut up or ship out. Even more disturbing is a surge in violent threats. A year after the murder of Jo Cox, a Labour MP, by a far-right extremist, politicians of all stripes say that they fear for their safety, such is the intensity of the insults they face. The threats extend to journalists. The BBC was reportedly obliged to provide its political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, with personal security.

本周，内阁内斗之激烈以至于首相特蕾莎·梅无奈向阁僚宣布，要么闭嘴要么就离开。与内斗相比更糟糕的是暴力威胁又有抬头的趋势，在工党议员乔·考克斯被一名极右翼分子杀害一年后，各个派别都有政客声称，他们担心自己会遭遇到类似的攻击，也非常担心自己的人生安全。据报道，BBC甚至被迫为其麾下的政治新闻编辑劳拉·库恩斯博格配备个人安保服务。

The worst of it is directed at women and minorities. Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP, told Parliament that she had received tweets saying that she should be hanged “if they could find a tree big enough to take the fat bitch’s weight.” During the election campaign, Labour supporters in Bristol unveiled a banner of Mrs May wearing Star of David earrings. Many of the abusers regard criticism of their loathsome behaviour as an invitation to redouble their efforts. When Yvette Cooper, a Labour MP, gave a speech condemning the culture of abuse, she was accused of being a “bully”, a “saboteur” and, worst of all, a “Tory”.

受威胁最深的就是女性和少数派政客。工党影子内阁内政大臣，也是英国第一位黑人女性议员，戴安娜·阿伯特就向议会报告，她在推特上收到过一些极端言论譬如：“如果能找到一棵能承载她肥胖身躯的树木，她应该被吊起来绞死。” 在之前的选举活动中，布里斯托尔的工党支持者们就曾打出一面画着梅姨佩戴大卫六芒星图案耳环的旗帜。许多恶语伤人者在遭受旁人对他们憎恶行径的批判后，反而变本加厉。当工党议员伊薇特·库珀在一次演说中对恶行加以指责时，她反而被冠上了“恶霸”、“破坏分子”、甚至“不法之徒”的头衔
（译者注：二战时法西斯德国曾强制要求所有犹太人佩戴大卫六芒星图案的徽章）

Britain is not unique in all this. Donald Trump has ushered in an era of bad feelings in America that is even more unpleasant. The runner-up for France’s presidency, Marine Le Pen, leads a xenophobic party. Supporters of Turkey’s ruling party use online bots to harass reporters. Britain has experienced other spasms of political rage in recent decades, particularly over Margaret Thatcher’s breaking of the miners’ strike and Tony Blair’s support for the Iraq war. But none of this diminishes the seriousness of Britain’s current problems. Its mood is darkening as that of Europe is lightening. And it is engaged in history-shaping negotiations with the European Union that can be saved from disaster only with the help of clear heads and reasoned debate.

在言论暴力这方面，英国并非独一无二。相比而言，唐纳德·川普早已将整个美国带入了撕逼年代，这更让人不快。法国方面则有着一位总统大选亚军玛丽莲·勒庞，领导着一个民族主义的排外政党。土耳其方面，执政党的支持者使用机器人回帖来攻击记者的报道。在最近数十年中，英国也经历过各种政治动荡，譬如撒切尔夫人粉碎了矿工罢工和布莱尔对伊拉克战争的支持，但与上述问题相比，英国现在遇到的问题的严重性一点儿也不低，与欧洲大陆相比，英国的政治氛围前途暗淡，在与欧盟进行的历史性的脱欧谈判中，只有清醒的头脑和理由充分的论据才能避免一场灾难性的脱欧啊。

Why has British politics become so unpleasant? The answer to almost everything these days is Brexit, which has split the country and inflamed opinion. But Brexit is a symptom as well as a cause. Britain is suffering from a malign combination of economic disruption and stagnation. Smart machines are eliminating some jobs, reorganising others and spreading anxiety. Average pay has declined by some 7% since the financial crisis of 2008. People might be willing to accept disruption if it were accompanied by improvements in living standards, or perhaps to tolerate stagnant living standards if they were accompanied by stability. But the combination of the two is uniquely dangerous, unleashing a wave of populism that is gaining momentum.

究竟是为什么英国政治氛围那么不受人待见？几乎所有一切问题的答案只有一个，就是脱欧，脱欧使国家陷入分裂，使民心不合。但脱欧只是一种表现形式和导火索，英国正在遭受严重的经济失调和增长停滞，智能设备正在从人类手中抢走工作，引发了连锁反应，传播着不安情绪，自2008年经济危机以来，平均工资下滑了7%，如果说生活水平有一定提高，那人们或许能原意接受经济失调，或者说哪怕生活水平停滞不前，但只要是稳定得到保障，也是可以忍受的，但如果经济失调和增长停滞同时出现，则会危险无比，这将导致民粹主义的兴起

Populists rage against the centrist establishment for failing to keep its promise of crisis-free growth (remember when Gordon Brown claimed to have abolished the boom-and-bust cycle?). And they demonise anybody who stands in their way as traitors to be crushed rather than as erring colleagues to be persuaded. Two cabinet ministers, Andrea Leadsom and Liam Fox, have questioned the patriotism of people who raise doubts about Brexit. The Daily Mail dubbed three High Court judges “enemies of the people” after they ruled against the government in a Brexit-related case. Internet trolls have suggested that Blairites in the Labour Party (some of whom happen to be Jewish) should be subjected to “the final solution”.

民粹主义者们愤怒地声讨中间路线的建制派没有兑现其保持增长不受经济危机影响的承诺（大家还记得戈登·布朗号称要打破“繁荣与萧条”怪圈的承诺吗？），要是谁有反对的声音，民粹份子就会把他们妖魔化为应当被打倒的叛徒，而不是犯了错误应该受到教育的同志。譬如，内阁环境大臣安德烈娅·利德索姆和国际贸易大臣利亚姆·福克斯曾经质问过那些对脱欧表示疑问的群众的爱国热情；每日邮报将三名高等法院法官称之为“人民公敌”，因为他们之前在脱欧有关的诉讼中作出了不利于政府的判决；更有甚者，网络喷子们曾建议，工党中的布莱尔主义者（一些人恰好是犹太人）应当被纳粹处决犹太人的方式加以”人道毁灭“

Two things are strengthening the poison. The first is the existence of sharp divisions within each of Britain’s main political parties. The Tories’ long civil war over Europe has entered an almost surreal phase. Rival factions brief against each other in the newspapers, talk about releasing scandalous personal tittle-tattle and even threaten to kick each other “in the balls”. Labour is enduring a soft coup. Emboldened by Jeremy Corbyn’s better-than-expected performance in the general election, the hard-left is threatening to deselect moderate MPs such as Luciana Berger, the member for Liverpool Wavertree, who has been subjected to a co-ordinated campaign of anti-Semitic and misogynistic abuse.

以下两点，使得言论暴力愈演愈烈。其一，英国各主要党派之间存在严重分歧，保守党在处理欧洲事务上的内斗已经进入一个超现实主义阶段，各争斗派别通过报刊媒体互相口诛笔伐，争报黑幕，互嚼舌根，甚至威胁采用下三滥手段；工党也正在经历一次小程度的政变，因科尔宾在大选中超出预期的表现，左派中的强硬份子居然胆大到想要取消诸如中间派议员卢恰娜·伯杰在利物浦韦弗特里的议员资格，理由是她的竞选活动没有将反犹太和歧视女性份子排除在外。

The second is the internet. Social media provide platforms for monomaniacs who previously raged in the privacy of their bedsits. People who might hesitate to berate their fellow citizens in person show no such qualms when it comes to sounding off against virtual targets. Bad-tempered tweets, dashed off in seconds, elicit bad-tempered responses, creating a culture of vitriol.

第二个锅要甩给互联网。社交媒体的存在，给了那些原先只能挤在自己狭小起居室内发飙的偏执狂们一个宣泄平台，在二次元，在当面斥责别人前，人们或许会思量再三，但在互联网上，这层顾忌将不再存在。极端言论的推文，短时间内，就会引来极端的回复，造就一个污秽不堪的网络环境。

Days of rage

愤怒日

Nastiness can be found at both ends of Britain’s political spectrum. But there is little doubt that the co-ordinated attacks are worse on the left. The Alt-Left is to Britain what the Alt-Right is to America. “As someone on the centre-left, there’s a huge difference between the abuse I get from right and left,” the New Statesman’s Helen Lewis tweets. “The right doesn’t put the hours in.” The left is more likely to use nastiness as a political tool. Mr Corbyn’s faction of Labour seems happy to work with the sort of people who carry banners displaying Mrs May’s severed head. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, urged people to take part in a “day of rage” against the result of a general election in which his party won 55 fewer seats than the Tories. He has also repeatedly used the word “murder” to describe the Grenfell Tower disaster.

---英国不同的政治谱系间都能发现黑点，但这一点上毫无疑问的是左派做的全方位比右派要差，极左派于英国的意义就如极右派于美国一样，《新政治家》杂志的海伦·路易斯曾在推特中写道：“作为中左派别的一员，左派和右派对我发起的言论攻击是截然不同的，右派并不怎么把我当回事”。相对而言，左派比较喜欢将某些黑点当做政治武器，工党中的科尔宾派似乎就很乐意与高举梅姨授首旗帜的人们在一起活动，影子内阁财相约翰·麦克唐纳尔（念红宝书的那位）曾呼吁人们参与抵制大选结果的“愤怒日”活动，因为大选的结果是工党席位比保守党少55个。他也在描述格林菲尔大厦火灾的情况时，不止一次用了“谋杀”这个词。

The great achievement of parliamentary democracy is that it takes potentially violent political conflicts and civilises them. That achievement is now threatened—not just by foam-flecked maniacs in bedsits, but by some of the highest in the land.

---议会民主制的伟大成就是，将可能发生的政治流血冲突化干戈为玉帛，但现在这种成就正在受威胁，威胁不仅来自掀不起大浪的平民，也来自庙堂上高坐的某些政客