欧盟理事会工作人员于2020年1月31日在布鲁塞尔的欧盟理事会大楼移除英国国旗。读者回应波莉·托恩比关于英国重返欧盟可能性的文章。
EU Council staff members remove the United Kingdom's flag from the European Council building in Brussels, 31 January 2020. A referendum is not needed for the UK to reach a Bre-entry deal with Europe Readers respond to Polly Toynbee’s article on the possibility of rejoining the EU With all due respect to Polly Toynbee, why do we assume that we would need another referendum to return to Europe ( Shall we have another EU referendum? Maybe – but not yet, 19 October )?
恕我直言，波莉·托恩比女士，我们为何要假设重返欧洲需要再举行一次公投（《我们要再搞一次欧盟公投吗？也许吧——但不是现在》，10月19日）？上一次公投的结果并不理想。让选民对如此复杂、多层面的协议进行简单的是非投票，从来就不是正确的做法；重返欧盟也是如此。
The last one didn’t work out too well. Asking the electorate to vote a simple yes or no on such a complex and multifaceted deal was never going to be the right approach; nor will it be to go back in.
无论你称之为“重返加入”、“重返入盟”还是“重返康复”，这都不应是一个全盘接受或全盘拒绝的交易。脱欧给我们带来的唯一机会，就是挑选对双方都有利的关系要素。何不采取循序渐进的方式，通过正常的议会程序来处理？无需动用大巴车。加里·琼斯 伦敦温布尔登波莉·托恩比称，支持重返欧盟的声音“逐年增长，部分原因是老年人纷纷离世”。
Call it what you will – Brejoin, Bre-entry, Brehabilitation – it shouldn’t be an all-or-nothing deal. The one thing that Brexit has given us is the opportunity to cherrypick the elements of a relationship that are of mutual benefit to both parties. How about approaching it on a piecemeal basis, processing it through normal parliamentary procedure? No buses required. Gary Jones Wimbledon, London Polly Toynbee says support for rejoining the EU “grows by the year, partly as older people drop off their perches”.
我还没离世，但我希望在离世前看到英国重返欧盟。为何要公投？让我们直接获得一份受人信任的首相制定的详细宣言纲领吧。米歇尔·埃利森 西米德兰兹郡斯托布里奇
I am still on my perch, but I want us to to rejoin the EU before I fall from it. Why a referendum? Let us just have a detailed manifesto from a trusted prime minister. Michelle Ellison Stourbridge, West Midlands