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.
嚴格作爲一個理論概念看待，英國退歐(Brexit)有可能成爲一個偉大的想法。然而，這個想法被退歐陣營用謊言兜售給選民，如今又處置失當。僅以幾位退歐派政客說過的話爲例：戴維•戴維斯(David Davis)以爲，與歐盟達成協議只需要跑一趟柏林；丹尼爾•漢南(Daniel Hannan)稱，英國顯然不會脫離歐洲單一市場；奈傑•法拉吉(Nigel Farage)認爲其他國家將跟隨英國退出歐盟。但結果遠非如此。退歐公投過去逾一年後，內閣仍無法就其想要什麼樣的退歐以及何時退歐達成一致。繼伊拉克戰爭和全球金融危機之後，英國正在滑向15年以來第三場災難。像先前的兩場災難一樣，英國退歐暴露了英國在運行上的三大根本缺陷。