Starting from the ambivalent discursive constructions of belongings and attachments, this paper is a description of the uneasy and uncomfortable relation between the UK and the ‘continent’. It discusses the historical British insular attitude looking at the metaphorical language used around Brexit, with a special emphasis on the metaphor “have one’s cake and eat it”, referring to the “cherry-picking” attitude that the British government wishes to have, retaining EU membership benefits without its obligations. Boris Johnson admitted that his policy on cake was “pro having it and pro eating it”, expressing an argument that, on withdrawing from the European Union, Britain would still retain many of the benefits that it had enjoyed as a member, since Britain was already “cherry-picking from the European tree without bothering to water the soil or tend to its branches”.

中文翻译：

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“英国已经从欧洲树上采摘樱桃，而无需费心浇水或照料树枝”

本文从所有物和依恋的矛盾话语结构出发，描述了英国与“大陆”之间的不安和不舒服的关系。它讨论了英国历史上的孤立态度，着眼于英国脱欧所使用的隐喻语言，特别强调了“鱼与熊掌兼得”的隐喻，指的是英国政府希望采取的“挑樱桃”的态度，保留欧盟成员资格没有义务。鲍里斯·约翰逊承认，他的蛋糕政策是“赞成拥有它，赞成吃它”，并表示，在退出欧盟后，英国仍将保留其作为欧盟成员国所享有的许多好处，因为英国已经“从欧洲树上采摘樱桃，无需费心浇水或照料树枝”。