伦敦不需要市长；它需要一位首相。英国正在分裂。苏格兰或许会脱离英国，而英格兰可能会背叛欧洲。保守党正对伦敦的生命线——移民设置障碍。这个全球最具活力的首都城市不能将其命运托付给一个“小英格兰”。现在是设想另一种未来的时刻：独立。
London does not need a mayor; it needs a prime minister. Britain is fracturing. Scotland may yet quit the union and England turn its back on Europe. The Conservatives are throwing up barricades against the immigrants who are the capital’s lifeblood. The world’s most vibrant capital city cannot entrust its fate to a little England. This is a moment to imagine a different future: independence.
伦敦现任市长鲍里斯•约翰逊(Boris Johnson)表示，他也希望让权力从英国议会转到伦敦市政厅。他的要求（要求更多一点的金融自治权和对法庭的监督权）微不足道。这毫不意外。约翰逊将很快离开伦敦市政厅到下议院任职。他渴望在唐宁街取代戴维•卡梅伦(David Cameron)。与强烈的野心相比，约翰逊对伦敦的忠诚毫无价值。
Boris Johnson, the present mayor, says he too wants power shifted from Westminster to City Hall. His demands — for a tad more financial autonomy and oversight of the courts — are piffling. Unsurprisingly so. Mr Johnson will soon vacate City Hall for the House of Commons. He aches to replace David Cameron in Downing Street. Mr Johnson’s loyalties to London count for nothing against consuming ambition.
独立经济学说明了一切。伦敦拥有850万人口（接近大伦敦的1350万），占英国国内生产总值(GDP)的五分之一以上，贡献了很大一部分税收。这使得伦敦的经济规模大致与瑞典相当。伦敦失业率不到3%；人口状况要比英国其他地区年轻。游客在伦敦的每年支出达到200亿英镑。
The economics of independence speak for themselves. With a population of 8.5m (closer to 13.5m in the wider metropolitan area) London accounts for more than a fifth of Britain’s gross domestic product and generates as big a chunk of its tax revenues. This gives it an economy about the size of Sweden. Unemployment is less than 3 per cent; the demographic profile is more youthful than in the rest of the UK. Tourists spend £20bn each year in the capital.
伦敦已成为高价值跨国企业的一个中心，远远超越了其作为卓越金融服务中心的传统地位。这里是不受约束的超富群体以及位于社会底层有精力和勇气让自己脱离苦难的人群所钟爱的家园。伦敦充满了干劲、活力以及享受人生的人们。对于那些不担心邻居是何种族的人而言，这是一个完美的居住地。
The metropolis has become a hub for high-value global businesses reaching well beyond its traditional role as a pre-eminent centre for financial services. It is the chosen home of the footloose super-rich and those at the bottom of the pile with the energy and grit to lift themselves out of hardship. London hums with enterprise, energy and people having fun. For those who do not fret about the ethnicity of their neighbours, it is a great place to live.
人们不十分了解的是，伦敦还拥有一个现代国家所具备的其他所有特点：自然边界、发达的交通运输网、一流的教育和健康网络、无与伦比的遗产和文化中心，甚至还有一个现成的政府首脑。接下来还有6支顶级英超(Premier League)足球队，还有位于罗德和特威肯汉的板球和橄榄球的精神家园。确实，独立也会留下一些缺憾。资产和债务将不得不在互相独立的党派之间合理分配。伦敦是有资本慷慨的。
Less well understood is that the capital has all the other attributes of a modern state: a natural frontier, superb transport links, first rate education and health networks, unrivalled heritage and cultural centres — even a ready-made head of state. Then there are the six first class soccer teams in the Premier League and the spiritual homes of cricket and rugby at Lord’s and Twickenham. Sure, independence would leave some rough edges. Assets and debts would have to be fairly allocated between the separating parties. London can afford to be generous.
英国的M25高速公路就是一个现成的边界，它是进入这个城市的通道，还是快速连接至英格兰其它地区的通道。这条道路的出入口匝道是边境控制站的完美场所，在这里，数字时代、电子监控以及识别工具将替代老式的移民登记队伍。现在嵌入护照的身份芯片能够轻易地针对汽车挡风玻璃进行改装。
The M25 orbital motorway is the ready-made frontier, providing access into the city and fast connections to the rest of England. The road’s on and off ramps are perfect sites for border control posts, though, in this the digital age, electronic surveillance and recognition devices would replace old-fashioned immigration queues. The identity chips now embedded in passports could readily be adapted for car windscreens.
当然，希斯罗机场很难算得上21世纪城市国家的一条好广告。但在新的管理下，它可以变成一个还算不错的机场。英格兰其它地区将接手盖特威克机场，将其作为航空公司飞往东南部的入口。从伦敦坐船去往欧洲其它国家的乘客，将通过泰晤士河港口蒂尔伯里转船，而多佛尔港将留给英格兰其它地区。
Heathrow, of course, is scarcely a good advertisement for a 21st century city state. But, under new management, it could be turned into a half-decent airport. The rest of England would inherit Gatwick as the entry point for airlines to the south east. Passenger ferries from London to the rest of Europe would run from the Thames port of Tilbury, while Dover devolved to the rump England.
伦敦有自治区和市政厅，拥有建立新民主的政治基础设施。它们的选民名册将决定是否有资格在独立公投中投票。假设投票支持独立（我想象不到其它可能性），新议会将设在威斯敏斯特。
With its boroughs and town halls, London has the political infrastructure for a new democracy. Their electoral registers would determine eligibility to vote in an independence referendum. Assuming a Yes — I cannot imagine any other possibility — a new parliament would be established at Westminster.
伦敦不会选择中央集权政府，而是将以英国官员为德意志联邦共和国撰写的宪法为模板，实行联邦宪法。因此，伦敦将回想起一条已被英国忘记的教训：权力在距离民众近的地方会得到最好的发挥。伊丽莎白女王(Queen Elizabeth)将作为这个城市国家的立宪制君主，仍然居住在白金汉宫。接下来伦敦将成为英联邦的一员。
London would eschew centralised government, adopting instead a federal constitution modelled on the one British officials wrote for the German Federal Republic. The city would thus recall a lesson Britain has forgotten: power is best exercised close to the people. Queen Elizabeth would retain her home at Buckingham Palace as the city state’s constitutional monarch. Membership of the Commonwealth would follow.
这个新成立的国家将加入欧盟(EU)，消除其跨国金融机构和其它专业服务机构的健康所面临的威胁。在摆脱了疑欧派的影响后（奈杰尔•法拉奇(Nigel Farage)领导的英国独立党(UKIP)在伦敦的得票率很低），伦敦将加入无国界的申根区，确保其大门向波兰医生、意大利设计师以及法国数学家开放。至少，伦敦将暂时继续使用英镑。英格兰其它地区将自由地使用该货币。
The new state would join the EU, lifting the threat to the health of its global financial institutions and other professional services. Free of the influence of the europhobes (Nigel Farage’s UK Independence party scores badly in the capital), it would join the border-free Schengen area, ensuring its doors remained open to Polish doctors, Italian designers and French mathematicians. For a time, at least, London would keep the pound. The rest of England would be free to share the currency.
获得自由的伦敦将认识到，多样性是其优势所在。那些已尽力提高英国学校标准的孩子们是第一代移民的后代。对于非欧盟公民而言，伦敦将实行自由的积分制移民制度，以吸引全球各地最优秀和最聪明的人才，让就业机会与技能相匹配。
Thus liberated, the capital would recognise that diversity is its strength. The children already doing most to raise standards in its schools are the offspring of first-generation immigrants. For non-EU citizens, there would be a liberal, points-based immigration regime to attract the best and brightest from around the world and match employment openings with skills.
那些从英格兰到伦敦的员工将实行特殊安排。这应该不是问题。在与爱尔兰的共同旅游区，英国已实行一种开放边境模式。如果英格兰选择在M25高速公路一侧修建围栏，其公民将不得不与印度的IT工程师和巴西的创业家争夺伦敦的工作许可。
Special arrangements would operate for workers travelling into the city from England. This should not be a problem. Britain already has an open borders model in the common travel area with Ireland. If England chose to build a fence on its side of the M25, however, its citizens would have to compete with Indian IT engineers and Brazilian entrepreneurs for work permits in London.
毫无疑问，满面愁容的英国独立党民族主义者和反移民压力集团将怨声连连。算了。伦敦的成功证明他们对独立国家的远景是错误的，他们的远景聚焦于这一部分人口：“白人”。伦敦周围各郡那些高级酒吧里的那些无聊家伙们，可以进行痛苦的身份辩论了。伦敦人应该摆脱束缚。
Doubtless, the pinched English nationalists of Ukip and anti-immigration pressure groups would cry foul. Tant pis. Their vision of statehood, fixated on the proportion of the population that is “white”, is confounded by London’s success. Saloon bar bores in the home counties can be left to their anguished debates about identity. Londoners should break free.