One major sticking point is the EU’s insistence on curbing the UK’s right to support local industries. State intervention may once have been anathema to true Tories, but Covid has “legitimised a more activist state” and the PM is sold on the idea of a new and vigorous industrial policy. He won’t give in easily on this.

But deal or no deal, the prospects for the UK are bleak, said Joseph de Weck in Foreign Policy. The agreement London and Brussels are trying to negotiate “doesn’t even come close” to the arrangements the EU has agreed with Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and even Ukraine. For example, whether the “all-important” financial services sector can continue to get access to the EU market will depend entirely on the “whim” of Brussels. The UK economy has shrunk more than any of its major European rivals during the pandemic. It can only shrink further. (Larry Elliott, The Guardian, Larry Elliott 24 Oct 2020).

My comment: All totally foreseeable amd an impending disaster. The Brexiteers have a lot to answer for, but the Brexiteer in the street doesn’t seem to care.