退欧留欧 英国普通家庭呈现代际差异

London — Members of the Driscoll family tend not to fight. If they do, it is over whose turn it is to vacuum.

伦敦——德里斯科尔家的人一般不闹别扭。就算闹的话，争论的也是轮到谁去打扫卫生了。

Leslie Driscoll, 55, sells hot cross buns in an English bakery in London and addresses her customers with “love” or “darling”; her husband, Peter, 54, works as a floor layer; their daughter, Louise, a 19-year-old with dyed blue hair, is a barista in a hip coffee shop.

现年55岁的莱斯莉·德里斯科尔(Leslie Driscoll)在伦敦的一家英式烘培店销售热十字包，会用“亲爱的”或“宝贝儿”来招呼顾客。她的丈夫彼得(Peter)则是54岁，从事铺设地板的工作。他们19岁的女儿叫路易丝(Louise)，头发染成了蓝色，在一家时髦咖啡店当咖啡调配师。

But last week, the Driscolls fell out. Badly. They had an argument so big they did not speak to one another for days, Leslie Driscoll said. Shortly afterward, her husband went off in a huff to see friends up north, in Derby.

然而上周的时候，德里斯科尔一家争吵起来。吵得不可开交。莱斯莉说，大家争得天翻地覆，好几天都相互不理。不久之后，丈夫就怒气冲冲地跑去北边的德比郡看朋友了 。

The source of the family drama: whether Britain should remain part of the European Union, a process often referred to as “Brexit.”

把家里弄得鸡飞狗跳的到底是什么呢？原来是英国是否应当留在欧盟。此事通常被称为“退欧”。

With only days to go until the referendum on membership in the bloc on Thursday, polls suggest that the country is deeply split along socioeconomic and regional lines, with many older and working-class voters in England favoring leaving, and younger and better-educated Britons, and a majority of those in Scotland and Northern Ireland, favoring staying.

离周四全民公决英国的欧盟成员国身份只差几天的时候，民意调查的结果显示，社会经济状况和地区差异让英国人的立场泾渭分明。许多年纪较长的英格兰蓝领选民主张退出欧盟，而年轻一些受过良好教育的大不列颠选民、大多数的苏格兰和北爱尔兰人则青睐留下。

As the consequences of the choice come into focus for voters, tensions are bubbling. In the case of the Driscoll family, they are boiling over.

随着这项选择的诸多后果成为选民关注的焦点，双方的矛盾也在酝酿。到了德里斯科尔一家这里，就彻底爆发了。

“I completely disagree with her,” Louise Driscoll said on a recent afternoon, looking at her mother squarely in the face as they sat in a cafe. “We shouldn’t be leaving, like, an organization that has helped us more than we could ever help ourselves if we were to go it alone.”

不久前的一个下午，路易丝坐在一家餐吧里，直视着母亲。“我完全不同意她的看法，”她说。“我们不应该离开。这个联盟对我们帮助巨大，假如就我们自己，是永远没办法做到这个程度的。”

Louise is the only one in her family who wants Britain to remain. Her parents and her 80-year-old grandfather want out.

路易丝是一家人里唯一希望英国留下的。她的父母和年过八旬的祖父都想要退出。

“This is a little island,” her mother said matter-of-factly, lighting up a cigarette and letting the ash fall on her glittery sneakers. “We should look after our own first. Charity begins at home.”

她的母亲点了一根香烟，任由烟灰落到亮闪闪的球鞋上。“我们是个小岛，”莱斯莉干巴巴地说。“应该首先照顾自己。慈爱始于家人。”

“But we are all people!” Louise said. “We should help each other.”

“可我们都是人啊！”路易丝说。“我们应该互相帮助。”

“It don’t work that way, darling,” her mother replied, shaking her head. “If you’re born here, you pass as English. I don’t care whether you’re black, white, green or blue, or purple with pink spots on — you’re English.”

“事情可不是这么办的，亲爱的，”她的母亲一边摇头一边回答。“如果你在这里出生，你就是英国人。我不管你肤色是黑是白是绿是蓝，还是紫底粉点——你就是英国人。”

Those born abroad, Leslie Driscoll said, “have got their own governments, their own parliaments, whatever.”

至于那些出生在其他地方的人，莱斯莉则表示他们“有自己的政府、自己的议会之类的”。

Up and down the country, the debate over Europe is pitting husband against wife, children against parents, sisters against brothers, divisions unlikely to be healed easily after the referendum is decided.

在英国上上下下，关于欧盟的争论让夫妻对立、子女与父母争执、手足交恶。就算公投之后，这样的分歧也不大可能轻易弥合。

The debate over Britain’s continued membership in Europe has touched on issues as varied as immigration, terrorism, the economy, London’s housing shortage and the fate of the National Health Service.

针对英国是否延续欧盟成员国身份的争论涉及各种各样的议题，包括移民、恐怖主义、经济、伦敦的住房短缺，以及国家医疗服务体系(National Health Service)的命运。

Some of these issues, like immigration, are directly related to the European Union. Others, like the shortage of affordable housing, have little to do with it.

其中的一些议题直接与欧盟有关，比如移民。另外一些则没什么联系，比如经济实惠的房屋的供应短缺。

Yet those distinctions are blurring. For many, the referendum is as much a chance to register displeasure with the country’s direction as it is an opportunity to reject or embrace Europe. The stance of some voters is being shaped by personal experience and anecdote.

然而，这些区分是模糊的。对不少人来说，这次公投既是一个拒绝或投入欧洲怀抱的机会，也是一个表达对本国前进方向不满的由头。塑造部分选民立场的是他们的个人经历与际遇。

There is, for example, a widespread perception that European citizens are flocking to Britain, especially from Eastern Europe, to take advantage of its social welfare system. But Britain’s welfare system is not as generous as those of many other European nations, and fewer than 7 percent of immigrants receive benefits.

比方说，民众普遍认为，欧盟公民，尤其是东欧人，在涌向英国，为的是利用英国的社会福利系统。不过，英国的福利系统并没有许多欧盟国家慷慨，而且只有不到7%的移民在享受英国福利。

Louise Driscoll voted for the Green Party in last year’s general election and was appalled that her mother, traditionally a Labour voter, had opted for the anti-Europe, anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party. (“Sorry, I know I’m a bit antiquated — can’t help it, love,” Leslie Driscoll replied, somewhat sheepishly, after her daughter uttered an expletive.)

路易丝在去年的大选中投给了绿党(Green Party)，很惊诧身为工党(Labour Party)传统选民的母亲转而投给反欧盟、反移民的英国独立党(U.K. Independence Party)。（听到女儿说了句脏话之后，莱斯莉有点难为情地回答，“对不起，我知道自己有点老派——没办法，亲爱的。”）

Louise Driscoll said she understood the pressures that immigration placed on schools and hospitals. But leaving the EU worried her, she said, because it risked wrecking the economy and making it hard for young people to secure employment. It took her eight months to find work as a barista, she said.

路易丝表示，她理解移民会对学校和医院系统造成压力。但她说，英国退出欧盟的做法让她担心，因为这会毁掉经济，并让年轻人难以找到工作。她花了八个月的时间才找到了咖啡师这份工作，她说。

“If I wanted to work abroad, it would be a lot easier if England was in the EU,” Louise said.

“假如我想出国工作的话，英格兰留在欧盟内就会让事情好办多了，”路易丝表示。

Her mother suggested that Louise move to New York, possibly unaware of the paradox that this would make her an immigrant herself.

母亲建议路易丝搬去纽约，她可能并未意识到这会让女儿也变成移民。

In what sounded like a final plea, she said: “At the end of the day, the EU is going to affect my generation more than it will affect your generation. So shouldn’t it be down to us to decide whether or not to stay?”

路易丝说：“到头来，欧盟对我这一代人的影响要大于对你们那一代的影响。那么，难道不应该由我们来决定是去是留吗？”这话听起来像是最后的说服理由。

Her mother fell silent and was thoughtful.

莱斯莉陷入了沉默，若有所思。

“I am 55 years of age,” she said slowly. “I know — I appreciate that in 50 years’ time, you’ll be here and I won’t, and you’ll have to put up with whatever’s happened.”

“我有55岁了，”她慢慢地回答。“我知道——也很理解，50年后你们还在这里我却不在了，是你们来承担将来的事情。”

She paused.

她停顿了一下。

“But I still want out,” she said. “Sorry.”

“可我还是想退出，”她说。“不好意思。”