Are Remainers wrong about a no-deal Brexit?

As a Remainer, I was always convinced a no-deal Brexit would be a disaster for Britain. Now, I’m not so sure. And while I once thought anything – even a painful and protracted transition period – would be better than leaving without a deal, I’m convinced Britain should push ahead with leaving the EU, whatever happens. The reaction to coronavirus – and, in particular, people’s thoughts about the pros and cons of lockdown – has convinced me why.

Ask someone’s position on the lockdown and you’ll probably have a fair idea of whether they are a Brexiteer or a Remainer. Some Remainers have become passionate defenders of the lockdown, seeing any questioning of it as being paramount to wishing death upon thousands; while some Brexiteers have started to question the logic of lockdown at all, or at least, the continuation of things like the two-metre rule. The fact that we have a Conservative Brexiteer government that implemented lockdown in the first place, or that most Remainers haven’t questioned the lockdown implications of the recent London protests only serve my point: this is less about what is the right thing to do about Covid and instead has become another plank in the culture war.