O Canada? Why Johnson’s Brexit songsheet is full of bum notes

The prime minister's starting point for trade negotiations with the EU is a nonsense that could lead us into the hardest of exits

Britain's most pressing problem is the government's determination to fashion a hard Brexit. And if not that, then a no-deal Brexit. Of course, there is also the potential for a colossal economic sideswipe to the economy from the coronavirus epidemic, while flooding is causing huge harm to towns and villages in the west of England and Wales, and the Treasury is preparing a budget that will probably disguise a limited, piecemeal increase in spending, with exaggerated talk of government action to level up the regions.

These threats are not yet structural problems to match Boris Johnson's demand that the EU offer a Canada-style agreement, one that gives easy entry to EU markets without strings attached, a proposal that cannot fly in Brussels and could mean the UK ends up with no deal.

Sadly for the Brexiter, the Swiss trade deals with the EU have always made for a poor analogy