留歐之路尚存一線生機

留歐之路尚存一線生機

英國脫歐已經(jīng)是板上釘釘?shù)氖铝藛?？不，我們還可以搶救一下。隨著脫歐可能造成的惡果一點點浮出水面，越來越多的人已經(jīng)改變了當(dāng)初對脫歐的看法。我們還有機會采取行動，亡羊補牢，及時止損。相信歐盟能夠原諒我們，就像圣經(jīng)里的父親原諒回頭的浪子。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

consolation安慰[?k?ns?'le??n]

jackpot頭獎，累積賭注['d?ækp?t]

quixotic不切實際的，狂想的[kw?k's?t?k]

brigade組隊，編組[br?'ɡe?d]

disarray無秩序，雜

亂[?d?s?'re?]

scenario情節(jié)梗概，劇本[s?'nɑ?ri??]

EU should welcome the UK back from Brexit like the prodigal son（712 words）

By Hugo Dixon

Pro-European Brits should put their heart into stopping Brexit rather than campaigning for a soft one. Mitigating the disaster of quitting the EU is a poor consolation prize. Staying in the EU, on the other hand, is the real jackpot — and, since Theresa May's disastrous general election, no longer a quixotic goal.

The soft Brexit brigade may gain comfort from the position papers the government will start publishing this week. These are expected to confirm that Mrs May is looking for a transitional deal to bridge the gap between quitting the EU and nailing down a new long-term relationship with our partners.

This shift is certainly welcome. But the government remains committed to leaving the EU's single market and customs union, so its policy will still damage our economy. We will also find ourselves marginalised on the world stage and so less able to influence things that really matter to our citizens such as fighting terrorism, combating climate change and preventing the worst side-effects of globalisation.

Anyone who campaigns for soft Brexit will be doing the government's dirty work for it. And, let us be clear, it is dirty work. The cabinet's disarray over what sort of Brexit they want is not just down to incompetence. They are trying to solve the impossible puzzle of getting a good Brexit. If the government wants to delay the pain, it will have to continue following the EU's rules and paying into its budget for that transitional period.

Rather than giving Mrs May a helping hand, pro-Europeans should exploit her problems in order to drive further changes in public opinion. People have lost confidence in the prime minister's ability to negotiate a good Brexit. Before the June general election, she seemed to walk on water; now she is drowning.

There has not been any noticeable change in the public's view about whether we were right to vote to leave the EU, on which opinion is still evenly split. However, an effective campaign to drive home the madness of Brexit would shift people's views on this, too.

Mrs May will hope her position papers will reassure the public that she has a plan. But the Brexit talks will get increasingly difficult. As voters realise that the EU has the whip hand and that the prime minister is having to eat her words, they are likely to get more worried, not less.

The public may become more concerned about damage to the economy. Inflation is up, car sales down, business confidence and consumer spending are down, businesses are putting off investment and a steady drip of companies are announcing plans to beef up operations in the rest of the EU before we have left. And the eurozone economy, which Brexiters said was a corpse, grew twice as fast as the UK in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, the voters understand that they were told a pack of lies in last year's referendum. Turkey is not scheduled to join the EU in 2020. The sunlit uplands of a trade deal with the US may come with chlorine-washed chicken. And we will not be getting £350m a week back from the EU. At some point, the government is going to have to fess up about writing a giant cheque to settle our past obligations.

Not surprisingly, voters are warming to the idea of a new referendum when we know what sort of Brexit comes out of the negotiations. According to the latest Survation survey, 46 per cent support this idea compared with 39 per cent against. Before the election, the figures were exactly the opposite.

Of course, a shift in public opinion will not be enough to stop Brexit. The politicians have to respond. But if the people really do want to think again, it would be undemocratic to deny them the chance.

The EU would also need to welcome a change of heart. Some suggest it would, in such a scenario, exploit our weakness by trying to remove our budget rebate or forcing us to join the euro. This would be silly. The EU has such a strong strategic and economic interest in keeping us in the club that it should help us come to our senses, say by changing how the principle of free movement is interpreted. Like the father in the biblical story of the prodigal son, it should kill a fatted calf, not punish us.