The referendums and the damage done 公投及其产生的损害

Britain needs a robust constitution now more than ever. Which is a pity

英国比以往都需要一部强有力的宪法，但很遗憾。

At some point in June or July roughly 124,000 people in Britain can expect to receive a ballot paper in the post.

在六月或七月的某些时刻，英国大约有12万4千人有望收到邮寄的选票。

It will offer them the names of two Conservative.

它将给他们提供两位保守党人的名字。

The one they select will, shortly thereafter, enter 10 Downing Street as prime minister.

此后不久，他们选出的人将以首相的身份入主唐宁街10号。

The rest of Britain’s 66m inhabitants will have no say whatsoever.

英国其余6600万居民将没有任何发言权。

Britain has changed prime ministers without elections many times before.

此前，英国曾多次未经选举而更换首相。

But the coming replacement of Theresa May, who announced her resignation as Tory leader on May 24th, is different.

但这次即将接替特蕾莎·梅（她于5月24日宣布辞去保守党党魁一职）的人不同。

Previously the new leader would have been picked by elected.

此前的新党魁由选举产生。

But since 1998 the role of the Tory party’s MPs has been to whittle the candidate list down to two.

但自从1998年起，保守党议员的职责就是把候选人名单削减至两名。

Unless one of those two then withdraws (as was the case when Mrs. May was elected) the final choice will be left to the membership.

除非其中一人退出 （就像梅当选的案例一样）最终选择将被留给全体会员。

A group of people more likely to be of pensionable age than not, more than two-thirds male, just half the size of Wolverhampton and far less ethnically diverse has become Britain’s electoral college.

一群可能快领退休金的人，超过三分之二的男性，只有伍尔弗汉普顿一半大小，种族多样性极小，已经成为英国的领袖选举团。

“It is weird, isn’t it,” says Shaun Gunner, one of the party’s younger members.

保守党内较年轻的成员肖恩·格纳表示，“这太奇怪了，不是吗？”

“My family and friends don’t get to choose the prime minister. And I do.”

“我的家人和朋友都没去选举首相，我也没有。”

The power that has been given to Mr. Gunner and his colleagues might be less unnerving if their chosen prime minister were easy to oust, or if his or her powers were clearly and formally constrained.

如果格纳和他的同事选出的首相很容易被赶下台或者他或她的权利受到明显限制，那么他们被赋予的权力可能不会那么令人不安。

Neither is the case.

事实并非如此。

For Tory MPs to turn on the leader their members had just given them would be a mixture of fratricide and suicide;

对于保守党议员来说，攻击他们刚选出来的党魁无异于自相残杀和自杀。

the Fixed-term Parliaments Act of 2011 upturned established conventions on confidence votes within the Commons, leaving confusion among MPs over both how to bring a government down and what happens when one falls.

2011年通过的《定期议会法案》推翻了关于下议院信任投票的既定惯例，让议员们对如何推翻一个政府以及当一个政府倒台时会发生什么感到困惑。

And the quirks of British parliamentary procedure provide various ways in which a sufficiently bloody-minded prime minister might force a “no-deal” Brexit without a majority in Parliament.

并且英国议会程序的怪癖提供了各种方式，让一位足够固执不愿合作的首相在没占有议会多数席位的情况下，可能迫使英国“无协议”脱欧。

This has all the makings of a constitutional crisis.

这就构成了一场宪法上的危机。

The British constitution is unusually opaque and poorly grasped even by those whose powers it governs: “The British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be,” as the queen has put it.

英国宪法异乎寻常地不透明，即使是由那些治理国家的人也对其掌握得很差。正如女王所说，“英国宪法一直令人费解，而且将永远如此。”

In normal times, this does not matter all that much.

在正常时期，这并没有那么重要。

In abnormal times it does, and Brexit has brought abnormal times.

但在特殊时期，这很重要。而脱欧带来了这个特殊时期。

The dominant party in Scotland, the SNP（Scottish National Party）, rejects Brexit, seemingly to no avail;

苏格兰执政党，苏格兰国民党反对脱欧，但这看上去无济于事；

the dominant party in Northern Ireland, the DUP, refuses the Tories’ vision of Brexit but props up their minority government nonetheless.

北爱尔兰执政党，民主统一党拒绝保守党关于脱欧的设想，但仍然支持他们的少数派政府。

As a result, legislation put together to bring about the Brexit the people voted for in a referendum has repeatedly failed to pass the House of Commons.

结果，人民在公投中投票支持英国脱欧的立法一再未能在下议院获得通过。

The two big Westminster parties won less than a quarter of the vote in the European elections of May 23rd.

在5月23日的欧洲选举中，威斯敏斯特的两大政党赢得了不到四分之一的选票。

Such times test constitutions.

这样的时间在考验宪法

The British one looks woefully hard put to pass its current test—in part because, over the past two decades, it has undergone an unprecedented spate of often poorly thought through changes.

可悲的是，英国的改革方案似乎很难通过当前的考验，部分原因在于，在过去20年里，英国经历了前所未有的一系列往往考虑不周的改革。

Beyond Bagehot

Britain is often said to have an unwritten constitution, and many Britons have blithely taken this to be something of a badge of merit, one “bestowed upon us by Providence”, as the complacent twit John Podsnap says in “Our Mutual Friend”, a novel by Charles Dickens.

人们常说英国有一部不成文的宪法，许多英国人欣然将其视为一种美德的象征，一种“由上帝赋予我们的”美德，就像自满的傻瓜约翰·波德纳普在查尔斯·狄更斯的小说《我们共同的朋友》中说道的一样。

In fact, most of the constitution is written down, but not all in the same place or with the same standing.

事实上，其中大部分是成文宪法，但并不是所有内容都在同一个地方或以同样的立场写下来的。

Statutes such as the Bill of Rights (1689) rub up against the Human Rights Act (1998) in a manner, scholars call “uncodified”, which means messy.

诸如《权利法案》（1689），《人权法案》（1998）等法规在某种程度上发生冲突，学者们称之为“不成文”，这就意味着混乱。

Many of the conventions for how Parliament goes about adding to such statutes are to be found in written references, such as the works of Thomas Erskine May, a Victorian clerk of the Commons.

许多关于国会如何增加这类法规的惯例都可以在书面参考文献中找到，比如维多利亚时期下议院秘书托马斯•厄斯金•梅的著作。

A few, such as who the monarch calls on to form a government, are indeed unwritten.

一些法规，例如君主要求某人来组建政府确实是不成文的。

Peter Hennessy, a British historian who sits in the Lords without party affiliation, argues that law, precedent and procedure provide a constitution which is as much a “state of mind” as anything else.

英国历史学家彼得•亨尼斯是一位无党派的上议院议员，他认为法律、先例和程序构成了一部宪法，它和其它任何东西一样，都是一种“精神状态”。

For decades, the men who dominated Britain’s ruling class felt they knew what was in and out of bounds in politics just as they did in cricket.

数十年来，英国统治统治阶级觉得他们就像他们了解板球运动一样，知道什么是政治内和政治外的禁区。

It was a constitutional approach which relied more than that of any other country, in the words of William Gladstone, on “the good faith of those who work it”.

用威廉•格拉德斯通（作为自由党人四次出任英国首相（1868-1874、 1880-1885、1886、1892-1894））的话来说，英国的宪法比其它国家都更依赖于“工作人员的诚意”。

Lord Hennessy calls this the “Good Chap” theory of government.

亨尼斯勋爵称这是政府的“好人”理论。

Over the past few centuries, the Good Chaps have mostly behaved themselves.

在过去几个世纪里，好人理论大多表现得很好。

They reformed the system in which they operated rarely, piecemeal and mostly in response to strong feelings among the public.

他们改革了这个体制，在这个体制中，他们很少零碎的运转，主要是为了回应公众强烈的感情。

The Representation of the People Acts of 1832 (the Great Reform Act), 1867 and 1918 expanded the franchise to all men not peers, incarcerated or insane;

1832年(大改革法案)、1867年和1918年《人民代表法》，除了囚犯或精神病患者，将选举权扩大到所有人;

the Representation of the People Act of 1928 saw all women enjoy the same rights.

1928年的《人民代表法》使所有妇女享有同等权利。

Over the 20th century hereditary peers had their powers and their number reduced.

20世纪以来，世袭贵族拥有权力，但人数减少。

Under Tony Blair’s Labor government, this restraint disappeared.

在托尼•布莱尔的工党政府领导下，这种克制消失了。

In its 1997 manifesto Labor promised to formalize the rights of the people and offer devolved power to the various nations and provinces of the United Kingdom.

在1997年的宣言中，工党承诺将人民的权利正式化，并将权力下放给英国的各个民族和省份。

After referendums in Scotland and Wales a revived Scottish Parliament received significant powers, a brand-new assembly in Wales rather less.

在苏格兰与威尔士的公投后，复兴的苏格兰议会获得了重要的权力，而威尔士的新议会却少了很多。

The Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to Northern Ireland changed its constitutional status, too, in various ways.

给北爱尔兰带来和平的耶稣受难日协议也以各种方式改变了北爱尔兰的宪法地位。

Later, new statutory instruments ensured that laws affecting only England had to have the consent of a majority of the MPs representing English constituencies.

后来，新的法定文书确保只影响英格兰的法律必须得到代表英格兰选区的大多数议员的同意。

The Human Rights Act of 1998 and the ratification of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in 2000 beefed up the rights of citizens.

1998年的《人权法》和2000年批准的《欧洲基本权利宪章》加强了公民的权利。

Freedoms that previously depended on Good Chaps in Parliament became protected by increased powers for the judiciary instead.

以前依赖于议会中优秀议员的自由，现在却受到了由于司法权力加强而得到的保护。

The conflict inherent in the fact that the Law Lords sat astride both parliamentary and judicial horses was resolved when their judicial role was hived off to a new Supreme Court.

上议院议员跨坐在议会和司法的双峰之上，这一事实所固有的冲突由于他们的司法角色被移交给新的最高法院时得到了解决。

Almost as striking as the breadth of the reforms was the insouciance with which they were carried out.

几乎与改革的宽度同样引人注意的是，改革的实施过程是漫不经心的。

When he recalls the day, he introduced legislation for referendums on devolution in Scotland and Wales in his memoirs, Tony Blair chirpily adds “and we announced a seven-point plan to revive the British film industry”.

当托尼•布莱尔回忆起那一天时，他在回忆录中提议就苏格兰和威尔士的权力下放进行全民公投。他愉快地补充道:“我们宣布了重振英国电影业的七点计划。

Richard Wilson, who was Britain’s top civil servant at the time, recalls the speed at which the legislation flew through Westminster as “breath-taking”.

时任英国最高公务员的理查德•威尔逊回忆说，该法案在威斯敏斯特通过的速度“令人惊叹”。

The hurried inception of the Supreme Court was, in the mocking words of its former president, David Neuberger, “a last-minute decision over a glass of whisky”.

用最高法院前院长大卫•纽伯格的嘲讽之词来说，最高法院的仓促成立，是“喝杯威士忌的最后决定”。

When David Cameron took office in 2010, he kept up the pace.

当大卫·卡梅伦于2010年就职时，他就跟上了这一步伐。

But whereas most of Mr. Blair’s reforms had the legitimacy that comes from being outlined in a manifesto, Mr. Cameron’s did not.

然而，尽管布莱尔的大部分改革方案都有合法性，而这些合法性来自于一份宣言的概述，但卡梅伦的改革方案却没有。

They were for the most part stop-gaps to convince the Liberal Democrats to enter a coalition with Mr. Cameron’s Conservatives.

它们大多是一些权宜之计，让英国自由民主党加入到卡梅伦的保守党阵营。

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act got rid of the power that prime ministers had previously enjoyed to call an election at any time, thus reassuring the Lib Dems that the Tories would not cut and run as soon as they fancied their chances.

《定期议会法案》废除了首相们此前享有的随时召集选举的权力，从而让自民党放心，保守党不会在他们认为有机会的时候就立即退出竞选。

A referendum on electoral reform—only the second ever nationwide referendum—was further Lib Dem bait, though Mr. Cameron led the No side and won.

选举改革的全民公投——这是有史以来第二次全国公投——是自民党的又一个诱饵，尽管卡梅伦领导了反对阵营并获胜。

When faced with an SNP（Scottish National Party）majority in the Scottish Parliament, Mr. Cameron agreed to a referendum on Scottish independence.

当面对苏格兰国家党在苏格兰议会占多数席位时,卡梅伦同意关于苏格兰独立的公投。

Again, he won.

他在一次赢了。

Why did the long years of constitutional stasis come to an end?

为什么多年的宪法停滞会结束?

One answer is that there were fewer lessons in constitutional instability to learn from.

一个答案是，在宪法不稳定方面，可供借鉴的经验较少。

In the 19th century Britons watched countries such as France and the United States tear themselves apart.

在19世纪，英国人见证了法、美等国家的分裂。

In the first part of the 20th century, they saw the rise of totalitarianism.

在20世纪初上半叶，他们目睹了极权主义的崛起。

They recognized that the delicate British constitution had to be taken seriously, argues Robert Saunders, a historian at Queen Mary University of London.

伦敦玛丽女王大学的历史学家罗伯特•桑德斯认为，他们认识到必须认真对待微妙的英国宪法。

Mr. Blair and Mr. Cameron, by contrast, came to power when history was said to have come to an end.

与之相反，布莱尔与卡梅伦上台时，其历史已走到了尽头。

They saw no need to take particular care of the constitution.

他们认为没有必要特别注意宪法。

The constitution was just another archaic part of public life to modernize according to the dehistoricized dictates of the age—or to mess with for short-term advantage.

宪法只是公共生活中另一个古老的部分，根据那个时代的去历史化的要求进行现代化，或者为了短期利益而篡改。

Mr. Cameron is said to have first hatched the idea of an EU referendum over a pizza in Chicago O’Hare airport.

据说，卡梅伦第一次是在芝加哥奥黑尔机场就披萨问题酝酿举行欧盟公投的想法。