真正的自信。

我们何时能这样？

今天FT评论员文章，讽刺英国脱欧，和抗疫的诸多可笑之处。

（1）离开欧盟之后，英国将如政府所言，成为“环球英国” Global Britain，

（2）英国科研如政府所吹的：世界领先 world-leading，

（3）国民卫生系统如政府所吹的：“棒极了” fantastic,

（4）官员们暴露出原形：只会制定政策，不会管理。

(5) 哦，从来欧盟夺回了主权，你再跟世界各国重谈贸易协定吧！世界把你当回事？

Britain gets a glimpse of life after Brexit.

The lesson from the pandemic is that national ‘sovereignty’ does not answer the challenges facing the UK.

The Covid-19 pandemic has offered advance sight of post-Brexit Britain. The mantra of Boris Johnson’s government is that, unshackled from the EU, the nation will be “world-beating”. Free to make national choices and set its own scenery on the international stage, it will champion free trade from its own seat at the World Trade Organization and decide its own policies for global challenges such as climate change.

In theory of course, Britain is still operating under EU rules, in force until the end of the Brexit transition period in December. Not even the most ardent Brexiter, however, would claim that Brussels has meddled in Europe’s effort to control coronavirus. The EU has been largely absent — a pity since the evidence suggests that no one has gained from the go-it-alone approach adopted in European capitals.

That said, for Mr Johnson the pandemic was a chance for the UK to show its strengths and demonstrate what it could do in its new guise as a truly “sovereign” nation reborn as “Global Britain”. This explains perhaps his confidence when the outbreak began to take hold in early March. Back then, remember, Mr Johnson boasted of shaking hands with doctors during a hospital visit.

The bullish message from Downing Street recalled that Britain is home to some of the very best epidemiological scientists and research institutes: the prime minister called them “world-leading”, in a variation on the habitual “world-beating” theme.

No government was better prepared. Britain had rehearsed for such an emergency in 2016 and stockpiled supplies. Exercise Cygnus, it was called. Of course, there also was the “fantastic” NHS. Britain would show the world how it was done.

Unhappily, Covid-19 does not pay attention to theoretical notions of sovereignty or to national borders. Far from the best, Britain’s performance fighting the virus has been dismal, leaving it at the bottom of the league of comparable European states.

At 64,200, excess deaths in the UK have been nearly eight times higher than in Germany, and two-and-a-half times the level in France. Spain and Italy also have significantly better records. Nor has the UK fared well economically. The Paris-based OECD predicts it will suffer among the largest falls in national income this year.