VOA常速英语2018--脱欧烂摊子不好收 deadline不等人（在线收听）

Britain’s business leaders Monday offered a stark warning on the growing cost of Brexit uncertainty. Brexit is consuming government, every politician, every civil servant and it’s also consuming British business. Our firms are spending hundreds of millions of pounds preparing for the worst case.

英国多位商界领袖于周一发出警示称，脱欧成本的不确定性在日益上升。脱欧这件事侵蚀着政府、所有政客和公务员，还侵蚀着英国的企业。我国的很多公司已经斥资无数，只为最坏的情况做打算。

Prime Minister Theresa May says the deal will be good for business, enabling it to recruit talent from around the world. It will no longer be the case that EU nationals, regardless of the skills or experience they have to offer, can jump the queue ahead of engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi.

英国首相特蕾莎·梅表示，当前的脱欧协议草案对英国企业有益。有了它，英国可以雇佣世界各地的人才。时过境迁，欧盟公民，不管他们拥有怎样的技能和工作经验，都不能插队在悉尼工程师或者德里软件开发工程师的前面了。

That pledge designed to placate Brexit supporters who say that withdrawal agreement leaves Britain too closely aligned to the European Union. The supporters of Brexit had always sold Brexit on the idea that you could go and do lots of trade agreements with fast-growing countries in Asia or the United States. The problem that they now face is that Theresa May has signed up to a customs union, which means that the UK essentially devolves power over its tariffs and over various other elements of its trade policy to the EU potentially. Several ministers have resigned in protest while others are trying to force to resume to modify the deal, but both the Prime Minister and the EU say negotiations on the withdrawal agreement are finished. As the rebellion grows, Conservative MPs may force a leadership contest as early as this week. Even if Theresa May survives, most MPs have pledged to vote against the deal in Parliament that would likely plunge Britain into political chaos. The pound is gonna tank. That can be a huge amount of pressure from the markets and from business, saying, look, we must have a deal, we can’t have no deal.

这个承诺是为了安抚脱欧支持者，因为脱欧支持者认为，脱欧协议把英国和欧盟联系的太过紧密了。脱欧支持者一直鼓吹脱欧之好，说脱欧之后，英国就可以跟亚洲和美国快速发展的国家签订大量贸易协定了。他们现在面临的问题是特蕾莎·梅已经签署了关税联盟协议，这意味着英国要将制定关税等相关事宜贸易政策的权力交给欧盟。几位内阁大臣辞职以表示抗议，还有一些大臣正在竭力施压，以求修改脱欧协议。不过，特蕾莎和欧盟都认为，脱欧协议的谈判工作已经结束。随着持反对意见的人越来越多，保守派议员可能会进行施压，并于本周初进行领导权争夺战。就算特蕾莎用这句话搪塞了外界，但大多数议员还是坚定表示会在议会中对该脱欧协议投反对票。这样的话，英国就很有可能陷入政治危机。英镑会贬值，继而引发巨大的市场压力。同样有压力的还有英国的企业，他们到时候一定会说，看，我们还是得有脱欧协议啊，没协议不行啊。

Another scenario is that she resigns. There is no government which can’t be created out of Parliament and therefore we have a general election, although I think that’s quite unlikely; and then the final option is that there is a second referendum on whether the UK should leave at all. With polls suggesting most Britons now want a rethink on Brexit. Bookmakers are shortening the odds on a second referendum and on Theresa May being forced from office.

还有一种可能性——特蕾莎下台。所有首相都是议会选出来的，这正是大选存在的原因，不过我觉得特蕾莎不太可能下台。最后的选择是：进行第二次全民公投，主题是英国是否应该脱欧。然后票数表明大多数英国人现在都希望重新考虑脱欧一事。博彩界认为，进行第二次全民公投以及特蕾莎下台的可能性越来越小。

She heads to Brussels this week for talks on the political declaration that outlines future ties with the EU, but that document is not legally binding. And May’s critics say she should not pay Britain’s fifty billion dollar divorce bill for existing liabilities without stronger guarantees of a trade deal.

特蕾莎本周去往布鲁塞尔参加有关政治宣言的会谈，这次会谈将决定未来英国与欧盟关系的大致框架，不过这份文件还暂时没有法律约束力。有评论家认为，特蕾莎不应该为成本高达500亿美元的脱欧事宜而买单，因为在她上任前，就已经有脱欧的大背景了，而且又没有稳固的贸易协定协议做后盾。

As the clock ticks down to the March 2019 deadline, uncertainty is intensifying as Britain’s politicians and its people appear ever more divided.

时间在一分一秒地流逝，离2019年3月的截止日期越来越近了，然而不确定性还在上升，因为英国的政客和人民之间意见愈发分化。