Why Boris Johnson can’t solve the UK’s crisis

The Brexit and Covid crises have merged into one. As of today, 21 December, France has blocked trucks from crossing the Channel as fears about a new strain of Covid — ‘the Kent virus’ to coin a phrase — sweep the continent. Perishable food was rotting, approach roads were jammed… it was as if we were living under a wartime blockade. By the time you read this, the French may have shifted from an outright ban to stringent health checks on exports and imports, but the pressure will still be on.

In less than a fortnight, on 1 January, we will have the real Brexit. It will be either without a deal or with a thin deal. Whatever it is, it will lead to vast increases in bureaucracy, delays, queues and costs falling on a Covid-battered country that cannot take much more.

Surely if there were a word of truth in the stereotype we still half believe of the British as a pragmatic commonsensical people, the Prime Minister would seek to do less harm.