下午好，我刚刚觐见完女王陛下，接受了她的邀请组建新内阁。我向前任首相的坚毅、耐心和她强烈的公共服务精神致敬。尽管她做了那么多努力，国内外明显还是存在许多持悲观态度的人。在他们看来，在这迟疑不决的三年里，这个国家已经沦为2016年脱欧公投的囚犯，并且在这个民主的国家，我们却无法履行民主的决议。
今天，我站在英国民众面前，告诉你们，这些批评者错了。（看海外资讯，加入出国圈微信号13823685606）
怀疑者、英国毁灭论者和悲观主义者们将会再一次犯错。那些打赌说英国会一败涂地的人，将会成为真正的输家，因为我们将让人们重拾对民主制度的信任，我们将要实现议会屡次向民众许下的诺言，并且在10月31日前完成脱欧，没有讨价还价的余地。
我们还要达成新的、更好的脱欧协议。这个协议可以将英国脱欧的几率最大化，同时让我们和欧洲其他国家发展出基于自由贸易和互相支持，令人激动的新型合作关系。
我有十足的把握，在接下来的99天里，我们就能达成这个目标。但你们知道吗？我们不会等99天那么长的时间，英国人已经等得太久了。
付诸行动的时间到了，强有力地领导这个国家走向更好未来的时间到了。尽管女王刚刚才授予我这个荣誉而特殊的职务，我的工作还是服务你们，服务英国人民。因为我们这些政客需要牢记于心的唯一要点，就是人民至上。
作为首相，我的职责是让你们的街道更加安全——我们将新启用2万名警察来巡逻街道，并且征募工作将立即开启。
我的职责是确保你们不用等待三周才能见到全科医生，我们将在这周新开始20个医院的升级工作，确保国民卫生服务制度（NHS）的钱用到实处。我的职责是让你们和你们的父辈和祖辈，不用为了支付医疗费用，而不得不卖掉房子。
因此，我在这里，在唐宁街的台阶上，向你们宣布——我们将会制定清晰的计划，彻底解决社会关怀上出现的危机，使这个国家老有所养，老有所依。
我的职责是让你们的孩子不管在哪里都能得到良好的教育，这就是为什么我们已经宣布，将增加对每个中小学生的教育补助，而这项工作将在这扇门后（唐宁街10号的正门，指首相官邸）立即开展。尽管我正在组建一个优秀的团队，我也会为这些我所希望看到的变革承担个人责任。一切责任由我承担。
我还想补充一些有关我的工作的其他事情。成为整个联合王国的首相，也就意味着我的职责是通过在各个层面上重塑英国人民之间的纽带，来团结我们的国家，来回应那些被遗忘的人们和城市的诉求，为人们提供更安全的街道、更好的教育、更好的公路和铁路设施，以及光纤宽带。我们将在全国提高工资和最低工资标准，提高生产力。
我们将增加机会平等，让数百万年轻人有机会拥有自己的房子，让企业有信心在英国投资，因为我们释放的生产力不止是来自伦敦和东南部，更是来自英格兰、苏格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰的每个角落。
构成国旗的四个部分（指英格兰、苏格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰）凝聚起来的力量远远超过了他们力量的简单相加。他们所展现的形象和政治人格受到全世界的钦佩和喜爱。
这份喜爱源于我们的创造力、我们的幽默、我们的大学、我们的科学家、我们的武装力量、我们的外交和我们所坚持的平等理念——对种族、性别和LGBT人群一视同仁，对世界上每个女孩接受12年优质教育权利的尊重，以及在这个世界上我们所代表的价值观。
每个人都知道这面国旗所代表的价值。它代表着包括言论自由在内的一切自由，代表着人身保护和法治，最重要的是它代表着民主，这就是为什么我们将在10月31日脱欧。归根结底，脱欧是英国人民的一项基本决定，他们希望英国的法律由他们选出的人来制定，同时这个人的去留也将由他们来决定。我们现在必须尊重这一决定，并和我们的欧洲朋友建立新的、尽可能亲密的伙伴关系。
为此，我们的第一步就是明确地向在英国居住和工作的320万欧盟公民重申我们的承诺。我在此要直接对你们说，感谢你们为我们社会做出的贡献。感谢你们的耐心。我向你们保证，在本届政府上台后，你们确定仍将拥有居住在英国的权利。
接下来我要对爱尔兰、布鲁塞尔和欧盟各地的朋友们说，我相信我们能够达成一个在爱尔兰边境不设关卡的协议，因为我们在任何情况下都反对设立边境关卡。但是，在没有那个反民主的“后备方案”（backstop）的情况下，我们当然要做好万全准备，以应对布鲁塞尔方面拒绝继续谈判，导致我们被迫无协议脱欧的可能性。
我们并不希望造成这种结果，我们当然不希望这样。但是我们按常理也必须做好相应的准备工作。我有必要在这里强调非常重要的一点，那就是这些准备工作并不是一种浪费，因为无论情况如何，我们都要在不远的将来脱离欧盟关税同盟，脱离欧盟监管的控制，下定决心利用好脱欧的机会。
由于我们国家已经昂首挺胸、充满自信地走上这条道路，我们现在将加快脱欧的准备工作。我们的港口、银行、工厂、企业和医院都将准备就绪。我们强大的食品产业和农业也将会准备就绪，不仅在国内，同时也向全球销售更多的产品。
不要忘了，如果无协议脱欧，我们还能省下390亿英镑的“分手费”。无论我们最终达成什么协议，今年秋天政府都会推出经济刺激计划来提振英国企业，巩固我们国家作为欧洲第一海外投资目的地的地位。
对那些还在预言将发生灾难的人们，我想说：没错，我们的确会面临一些困难，但是我相信，如果我们拥有足够的干劲和勤奋精神，事情就不会像某些人说的那么糟糕。
如果说过去三年有什么事情真正地打击了企业的自信心的话，那并不是我们所做的决定造成的，而恰恰是我们拒绝做出决定所造成的。对于那些声称我们没法做好准备的人们，我想说，不要低估我们这个国家。
不要低估我们的组织能力和决心，因为我们知道，我国在生命科学、技术、学术、音乐、艺术、文化、金融服务等领域，都有着强大的实力。
正是在英国，我们实现了首例用基因疗法来治疗最常见的一种失明。正是在英国，我们开发出了全球领先的电池技术，能够减少二氧化碳排放，应对气候变化，并为下一代人创造绿色的就业岗位。我们在为脱欧后的未来做准备的同时，除了要关注风险，还要关注我们即将因脱欧而得到的机遇。
那么，让我们现在就开始建立自由港，推动经济增长，并在落后地区创造数以千计的高技能就业岗位。让我们现在就开始把英国优秀的生物技术产业从反转基因监管中解放出来，开发抗枯萎病的转基因作物，为全世界的人口提供粮食。让我们现在就开始建立自己的导航卫星和地球观测系统，让英国自己的卫星在太空中运行，为国家提供长期的战略和商业利益。
让我们改革税制，为资本和研究的投资提供更多的激励。让我们改善英国民众一直热心关切的动物福利。to让我们现在就开始签订自由贸易协定，因为在帮助数十亿人摆脱贫困的过程中，自由贸易居功至伟。所有的这些事情我们现在就可以开始做，现在也必须开始做。在三年以来毫无根据的妄自菲薄之后，在这个我国历史上的关键时刻，是时候转变方向了。
是时候重拾那个进取的、开放的、国际化的、大气的、参与全球事务的英国形象了。过去几个世纪以来，唱衰英国的胆识、意志和雄心的人，从来没有成功过。他们今天也不会成功。本届政府将鞠躬尽瘁，来领导这个国家。我们的工作就从现在开始。谢谢大家！
翻译：陈晔、金书沁、王品达
责编：朱凯
以下为演讲英文原文
Good afternoon. I have just been to see Her Majesty the Queen who has invited me to form a government and I have accepted. I pay tribute to the fortitude and patience of my predecessor and her deep sense of public service but in spite of all her efforts it has become clear that there are pessimists at home and abroad who think that after three years of indecision that this country has become a prisoner to the old arguments of 2016 and that in this home of democracy we are incapable of honouring a basic democratic mandate.
And so I am standing before you today to tell you the British people that those critics are wrong.
The doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters – they are going to get it wrong again. The people who bet against Britain are going to lose their shirts because we are going to restore trust in our democracy and we are going to fulfil the repeated promises of parliament to the people and come out of the EU on October 31, no ifs or buts.
And we will do a new deal, a better deal that will maximise the opportunities of Brexit while allowing us to develop a new and exciting partnership with the rest of Europe based on free trade and mutual support.
I have every confidence that in 99 days’ time we will have cracked it but you know what – we aren’t going to wait 99 days because the British people have had enough of waiting.
The time has come to act, to take decisions to give strong leadership and to change this country for the better and though the Queen has just honoured me with this extraordinary office of state my job is to serve you, the people because if there is one point we politicians need to remember it is that the people are our bosses.
My job is to make your streets safer – and we are going to begin with another 20,000 police on the streets and we start recruiting forthwith.
My job is to make sure you don’t have to wait 3 weeks to see your GP and we start work this week with 20 new hospital upgrades, and ensuring that money for the NHS really does get to the front line. My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care.
And so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve.
My job is to make sure your kids get a superb education wherever they are in the country and that’s why we have already announced that we are going to level up per pupil funding in primary and secondary schools and that is the work that begins immediately behind that black door and though I am today building a great team of men and women I will take personal responsibility for the change I want to see. Never mind the backstop – the buck stops here.
And I will tell you something else about my job. It is to be Prime Minister of the whole United Kingdom and that means uniting our country answering at last the plea of the forgotten people and the left-behind towns by physically and literally renewing the ties that bind us together so that with safer streets and better education and fantastic new road and rail infrastructure and full-fibre broadband we level up across Britain with higher wages, and a higher living wage, and higher productivity.
We close the opportunity gap, giving millions of young people the chance to own their own homes and giving business the confidence to invest across the UK because it is time we unleashed the productive power not just of London and the South East, but of every corner of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The awesome foursome that are incarnated in that red white and blue flag who together are so much more than the sum of their parts and whose brand and political personality is admired and even loved around the world for our inventiveness, for our humour, for our universities, our scientists, our armed forces, our diplomacy, for the equalities on which we insist – whether race or gender or LGBT or the right of every girl in the world to 12 years of quality education, and for the values we stand for around the world.
Everyone knows the values that flag represents. It stands for freedom and free speech and habeas corpus and the rule of law and above all it stands for democracy and that is why we will come out of the EU on October 31 because in the end Brexit was a fundamental decision by the British people that they wanted their laws made by people that they can elect and they can remove from office and we must now respect that decision and create a new partnership with our European friends – as warm and as close and as affectionate as possible.
And the first step is to repeat unequivocally our guarantee to the 3.2 m EU nationals now living and working among us. And I say directly to you – thank you for your contribution to our society. Thank you for your patience and I can assure you that under this government you will get the absolute certainty of the rights to live and remain and next I say to our friends in Ireland, and in Brussels and around the EU.
I am convinced that we can do a deal without checks at the Irish border, because we refuse under any circumstances to have such checks and yet without that anti-democratic backstop and it is, of course, vital at the same time that we prepare for the remote possibility that Brussels refuses any further to negotiate and we are forced to come out with no deal not because we want that outcome – of course not, but because it is only common sense to prepare and let me stress that there is a vital sense in which those preparations cannot be wasted and that is because under any circumstances we will need to get ready at some point in the near future to come out of the EU customs union and out of regulatory control fully determined at last to take advantage of Brexit.
Because that is the course on which this country is now set with high hearts and growing confidence, we will now accelerate the work of getting ready and the ports will be ready. And the banks will be ready and the factories will be ready and business will be ready, and the hospitals will be ready, and our amazing food and farming sector will be ready and waiting to continue selling ever more not just here but around the world.
And don’t forget that in the event of a no-deal outcome we will have the extra lubrication of the £39bn and whatever deal we do we will prepare this autumn for an economic package to boost British business and to lengthen this country’s lead as the number one destination in this continent for overseas investment.
And to all those who continue to prophesy disaster, I say yes – there will be difficulties, though I believe that with energy and application they will be far less serious than some have claimed but if there is one thing that has really sapped the confidence of business over the last three years it is not the decisions we have taken. It is our refusal to take decisions.
And to all those who say we cannot be ready I say do not underestimate this country.
Do not underestimate our powers of organisation and our determination because we know the enormous strengths of this economy in life sciences, in tech, in academia, in music, the arts, culture, financial services.
It is here in Britain that we are using gene therapy, for the first time, to treat the most common form of blindness here in Britain that we are leading the world in the battery technology that will help cut CO2 and tackle climate change and produce green jobs for the next generation. And as we prepare for a post-Brexit future it is time we looked not at the risks but at the opportunities that are upon us.
So let us begin work now to create free ports that will drive growth and thousands of high-skilled jobs in left-behind areas. Let’s start now to liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti-genetic modification rules and let’s develop the blight-resistant crops that will feed the world. Let’s get going now on our own position navigation and timing satellite and earth observation systems – UK assets orbiting in space with all the long term strategic and commercial benefits for this country.
Let’s change the tax rules to provide extra incentives to invest in capital and research and let’s promote the welfare of animals that has always been so close to the hearts of the British people. And yes, let’s start now on those free trade deals because it is free trade that has done more than anything else to lift billions out of poverty. All this and more we can do now and only now, at this extraordinary moment in our history and after three years of unfounded self-doubt it is time to change the record.
To recover our natural and historic role as an enterprising, outward-looking and truly global Britain, generous in temper and engaged with the world. No one in the last few centuries has succeeded in betting against the pluck and nerve and ambition of this country. They will not succeed today. We in this government will work flat out to give this country the leadership it deserves and that work begins now. Thank you very much.
来源：The Spectator
整理：杨佩谦
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