文档介绍：Bagehot白芝浩专栏
All Wight now怀特岛,干得好!
An island’s fight to keep its MP points to trouble for the government怀特岛人力保议会席位,直指联合政府执政弊端
Feb 17th 2011 | from the print edition
IN THE summer of 1488 some 440 men from the Isle of Wight—a small island off England’s south coast—decided to declare war on France. Conceived by an ambitious local overlord, the plan went awry. Legend has it that a lone survivor straggled home, accusing the islanders’ allies—a bunch of rebel,Bretons—of abandoning them in battle near Rennes. A memorial plaque to this fiasco, hailing the gallantry of those involved, hangs in Carisbrooke Castle, just below the room where local bigwigs locked Charles I after the civil war. (The king was on the run, and peeved islanders with further escape attempts, one of which left him wedged in his bedroom window.) When es to defying higher authority, in short, the Isle of Wight has form.
1488年夏天,大约440位怀特岛男性居民决定要对法国宣战(怀特岛是英国南海岸边上的一个小岛)。这个主意是岛内一野心勃勃的首领拿的,但是最后这个计划也是难逃滑铁卢之厄运。传说,战争的幸存者孤零零一人找不到回家的路了,他指责身为怀特岛同盟的一群布列塔尼反叛人士,于鏖战之际抛弃他们在雷恩附近。卡里死不卢布城堡还立下了“滑铁卢”纪念牌匾,表彰纪念那些与战人员的矫勇善战,这幅牌匾还就挂在了一间特殊屋子的房檐下,这个屋子就是当年英国资产阶级革命之后当地权贵人士囚禁查尔一世的地方。(查尔一世屡教不改,屡屡“越狱”,岛内人士对此大为光火。有一次,他为了逃跑甚至还卡在了卧室窗户上)。总而言之,对于挑战高层权威,怀特岛人还真不是盖的。
       
Now the island has done it again. On February 15th the government was forced to drop plans to split the Isle of Wight into one and a half parliamentary seats. The half-seat wa