Should Nigel Farage become prime minister, his first duty would be to hand-write orders to the commanders of Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines on how to respond if the government were destroyed in an all-out war. His followers know their preference. Presented with four options, 41% of Reform UK supporters would order a counter-strike(反击，反打击), according to YouGov, a pollster. For Britons at large, more squeamish(易感恶心的，拘谨的) about Armageddon(《圣经》中的末日决战之地), it is 22%.
倘若奈杰尔·法拉奇当上首相，他的第一项职责将是手写命令，指示英国核潜艇指挥官：一旦政府在全面战争中遭摧毁，该如何应对。他的追随者清楚自己的偏好。民调机构YouGov的数据显示，面对四个选项，41%的英国改革党支持者会选择下令核反击。而全体英国人中，对末日决战更为忌惮，选择核反击的比例仅为22%。
Frying Moscow(把莫斯科炸平) is just one respect in which supporters of Britain’s biggest populist-right party stand out(突出，与众不同). Pick a question of policy, and chances are Reformers are the outlier(异类，离群者)s. They are unusually suspicious of vaccines, unusually unfussed(不在乎的，漠然的) about Ukraine’s fate and unusually approving of recent anti-migrant demonstrations by masked men at English ports.
“把莫斯科炸平”只是英国最大民粹右翼政党支持者与众不同的一个方面。随便挑一个政策问题，改革党人很可能都是异类。他们对疫苗异常怀疑，对乌克兰的命运异常漠然，对近日戴面罩的男子在英格兰港口举行的反移民示威异常赞同。
But it is temperament more than policy that makes them a breed apart, from the country and from the old Conservative Party from which Mr Farage has recruited his ranks.(但让他们与众不同的，与其说是政策，不如说是性情；他们既疏离于整个国家，也疏离于法拉奇从中招募人马的旧保守党。) Reformers tend to be less trusting of the state, more suspicious of their fellow citizens and less engaged in Britain’s cultural life. Britain has its problems, but Reform folk are more inclined to think it is fundamentally broken. It is as if Mr Farage has made the party a sieve(筛子), adeptly sift(筛选，筛分)ing the most cynical(愤世嫉俗的) quarter of the electorate. He has long traded as the head of a merry band of liberty-lovers. In practice, Reform’s animating spirit is misanthropy(厌世，憎恶人类).
但让他们与整个国家、与法拉奇从中招募人马的旧保守党截然不同的，与其说是政策，不如说是性情。改革党人往往更不信任国家，更怀疑同胞，也更少参与英国的文化生活。英国固然有问题，但改革党人更倾向于认为它已从根本上崩坏。仿佛法拉奇把该党变成了一只筛子，巧妙地筛出了选民中最愤世嫉俗的那四分之一。长期以来，他一直以一群快乐自由爱好者的领袖自居。但实际上，改革党的灵魂是厌世。
A grand day out
愉快的一天