Nine years after the Brexit referendum, the howls of “surrender” from Britain’s political right over the Labour government’s reset with the EU shows how divisive, and cloaked in misinformation, the issue remains. The agreement is not a massive sellout. Neither is it, in sum, a massive deal. It is, though — like the UK’s recent trade pacts with India and the US — a worthwhile step. Its importance is above all symbolic: the first big UK-wide agreement with the EU since Brexit is a recognition that it is in both sides’ interests to work more closely together.
英国退欧公投九年后,英国工党政府与欧盟重启关系,英国右翼政界对此高呼“投降”,这显示出该议题依旧极具分裂性,并被大量错误信息所笼罩。这项协议并不是一次重大的让步,也不是一项重大的交易。它与英国最近与印度和美国签署的贸易协定一样,是值得肯定的一步。其意义主要在于象征性:这是英国自退欧以来与欧盟达成的首个重大协议,表明双方都认识到更紧密合作符合彼此利益。