在伦敦议会大厦附近，有一块标语牌，上面描绘了奈杰尔·法拉奇（Nigel Farage）的形象，并对潜在的政党捐款行为提出了质疑。照片来源：Toby Melville/Reuters
A placard depicting Nigel Farage and questioning potential party donations near the Houses of Parliament in London.
面对“改革”对民主构成的威胁读者们对约翰·哈里斯（John Harris）的文章作出了回应；在这篇文章中，哈里斯呼吁工党为民众带来希望与变革。哈里斯写道：“改革显然陷入了困境，但仍然拥有成功的希望。这是为什么呢？”（不要因为改革在过去一年中遭遇了挫折就对其失去信心。在我们这个充满愤怒与矛盾的民主体系中，任何事情都可能发生，9月20日。）因为“改革”组织本质上就是一个类似邪教的团体——它依靠人们的信仰而非事实来维持自身的存在；它为那些极其复杂的问题提供了看似简单的解决方案，而这些问题的本质其实超出了我们大多数人的理解范围。
Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters Letters Facing up to the threat that Reform poses to our democracy Readers respond to an article by John Harris in which he urges Labour to offer hope and change John Harris writes: “Reform is apparently in deep trouble, yet also still in with a serious chance. How come?” ( Don’t discount Reform because it’s had a bad year. In our angry, fragile democracy, anything can happen, 20 September ). Because it is a cult, just as Maga is a cult. It is sustained by faith, not fact. It offers simple solutions to problems of such complexity that most of us are incapable of understanding them.
如果没有奈杰尔·法拉奇，“改革”组织根本不可能存在；它旗下的其他所有“政党”也都是因为他才得以成立的。该组织自称“不属于现有政治体制的一部分”——这一点倒是相对可靠的；但它实际上是一个完全无视道德规范的“禁区”。法拉奇不过是美国极右翼势力在英国的代理人罢了。唯一缺少的，或许就是那种带有宗教色彩的“末日论”思想罢了……如果这种思想真的浮出水面，也不会让很多人感到意外。
Reform UK would not exist without Nigel Farage All his other “parties” only existed because of him. Its self-designation as outside “the establishment” is one of the few truths to be relied on – in the sense that it’s beyond the pale. It is an ethics-free zone. Farage is the tool of the US hard right in the UK. All that’s missing is the Christian end-times nihilism, and not many would be surprised if that clawed its way to the surface soon. Harris maintains that the next general election will be driven by emotion – all choices are. Our biochemistry sees to that before our prefrontal cortex even engages. And the choice will be stark. It will be about “me” or “we”. Do we each retreat to our own little “green zone” or do we hang on to that glimmer of hope and work together?
哈里斯认为，下一次大选将会被情绪所左右——所有政治选择最终都源于人们的情绪反应。在我们的大脑前额叶皮层尚未开始发挥作用之前，我们的生理反应就已经决定了我们的选择方向。最终的选择将非常明确：要么是“自我为中心”，要么是“团结合作”。我们是应该各自退回到自己的“小圈子”里，还是应该紧紧抓住那一丝希望，共同努力？
I believe Andy Burnham is sincere in his desire to do politics differently, but I am disturbed that he has said nothing yet about the systemic change necessary for a new, people-focused politics. The founding of a commission to inform a citizens’ assembly on voting reform would be a clear indication that he means what he says. I live in hope.
我相信安迪·伯纳姆（Andy Burnham）真心希望以不同的方式来从事政治工作，但让我感到不安的是，他至今仍未提及实现真正以民众为中心的政治体系所需的系统性变革。如果他能成立一个委员会来为公民大会提供有关选举改革的建议，那将是一个明确的信号，证明他的话是认真的。我依然抱有希望……林·戴德 特威克纳姆，伦敦 约翰·哈里斯使用的“慷慨资助的野蛮主义”这一短语，概括了由改革党领导的政府对英国构成的威胁。改革党的崛起及其无情的言辞，助长了暴力种族主义民兵式团体在我们街头的滋长，这些团体日益增长的存在不仅恐吓整个社区，还制造了一种无法无天和不安全的氛围。与此同时，亿万富翁们突然看到了在英国民主中购买影响力的机会——尽管他们大声否认——而在别处，像吉姆·拉特克利夫这样的避税侨民似乎获得了授权，大肆宣扬英国从世界最伟大帝国衰落的论调。
Lyn Dade Twickenham, London The threat that a Reform-led government poses to the UK is summed up in John Harris’s use of the phrase “munificently funded barbarism”. The rise of Reform and its ruthless rhetoric has helped generate the growth of violent racist militia-styled groups on our streets, whose increasing presence not only intimidates whole communities but creates an atmosphere of lawlessness and insecurity. Simultaneously, billionaires suddenly see an opportunity to buy influence in the UK’s democracy – loudly denied – and elsewhere tax exiles such as Jim Ratcliffe seem empowered to rant about Britain’s decline from when it was the greatest empire in the world. Barbarism, it seems, can attract both interest and vast sums of money from some of the wealthiest people in the world. That alliance of munificent funding and barbarism should alert Andy Burnham and his Labour colleagues and all of us who value and want to protect our increasingly fragile democracy.
野蛮主义似乎能吸引世界上一些最富有的人的兴趣和巨额资金。这种慷慨资助与野蛮主义的结盟，应该警醒安迪·伯纳姆及其工党同僚，以及所有珍视并希望保护我们日益脆弱的民主的人们。
Barbarism, it seems, can attract both interest and vast sums of money from some of the wealthiest people in the world. That alliance of munificent funding and barbarism should alert Andy Burnham and his Labour colleagues and all of us who value and want to protect our increasingly fragile democracy.
彼得·里德尔 维克斯沃思，德比郡 约翰·哈里斯提到了安奈林·贝文，后者最著名的名言之一是：“优先次序的语言是社会主义的宗教。”许多工党议员，或许还有哈里斯本人——读过他的许多评论文章——都需要认真对待这一点。他们例如对福利预算任何合理审查的全盘本能式反对，简直是改革党的耳中之音。希望以及社区的自我安宁，只会源于可信的政策优先次序与财政能力的结合。罗杰·惠特莫尔 巴斯
Peter Riddle Wirksworth, Derbyshire John Harris mentions Aneurin Bevan, one of whose most famous quotes was: “The language of priorities is the religion of socialism” This is something that many Labour MPs, and perhaps Harris, having read many of his opinion pieces, need to engage with. Their blanket kneejerk opposition, for example, to any justifiable scrutiny of the welfare budget is music to the ears of Reform. Hope and communities at ease with themselves will only follow from credible policy priorities married to fiscal competence. Roger Whitmore Bath