Cummings’s state aid is scarcely a substitute for EU trade

Loss of access, loss of wealth, loss of face: even Thatcher would not have inflicted something like Brexit on Britain

Whatever one thinks of the handling of the pandemic, or of the poor contingency planning in earlier years, the one thing one cannot blame this government for is the virus itself.

Alas, the same cannot be said of the imminence of Brexit in tooth and claw, as opposed to the transition now under way. Among the briefings" emanating from Downing Street have been suggestions that the economic consequences of Brexit will be subsumed by the undoubted economic horrors occasioned by Covid-19.

This monstrous government is prepared to throw away vital resources in favour of the freedom to conclude worse trade deals than they already have