The lethal combination of Brexit and Covid

The combination of Covid-19 and Brexit is a double whammy. The first was a haymaker that hit Britain from nowhere. The follow up will come when Britain, quite deliberately and with malice aforethought, winds up its fist and punches itself in the face. The economic impact of the virus will be accentuated by the UK leaving the EU without a deal or with a meagre free-trade agreement, warns a grim report, sponsored by the Best for Britain think tank.

Business leaders do not generally get much sympathy. Watch any thriller made in the last two decades and as soon as the corporate executive appears on screen you can guess with a fair degree of certainty that the hero will unmask him as the villain in the final reel. They deserve our sympathy now. Even with a free-trade agreement, the report’s authors conclude that Britain will lose £40 billion a year.