Andy Richardson: 'There’s always something worse just around the corner'
Let’s start with the good news. A Brexit deal might be just around the corner.
Admittedly, it will be a deal that few voted for and that would likely be voted down were it to go to the British public. Then there’s the fact that credible economic forecasts say the hard Brexit we may get, if we’re lucky, will have a worse long-term effect than Covid-19.
Which means we’re staring down the barrel of an event that’s going to be worse than a pandemic that caused more economic disruption than anything else during the past 300 years.
Now let’s look at the bad news. Unless bodger and bodger budge over the next few days in their tiring game of brinksmanship and see sense over a level playing field, fishing quotas and who decides what to do when one side (probably us) breaks the rules, things will be considerably worse. The Australian-style treaty that BoJo blusters about is actually No Deal, by another name.
As if 99 per cent of the country being in Level 2 and 3 of the Covid Tiers were not enough to worry about, there’s always something worse just around the corner.
It’s at times like these that we need to come together, of course, which might explain why both the Tory and Labour parties are riven with factionalism and dispute.
Pressure is growing on BoJo from Conservative MPs who are fed up that their constituents can’t trade in the run-in to Christmas. They also flatly reject Michael Govid-19’s assertions that the NHS is going to be overwhelmed.
Labour, meanwhile, remains transfixed on the man who steered them away from power. Jezza is down but not out – well, not quite out – of the Labour Party and is doing his level best to ensure the never-ending fight that keeps them out of Downing Street continues. A protest politician par excellence, to the Conservative Party he is the gift that keeps giving.
Santa may be delayed due to Covid-19; though not because he can’t get a delivery pass for Tier 3. A man dressed as Father Christmas was nicked by the Old Bill during protests in London against lockdown. Quite what Saint Nick was doing outside the Greenland Tier when he’s supposed to be keeping an eye on the elves remains to be seen. No doubt he’ll explain that to the magistrates when he appears in court soon. There is more good news, this time in Cambodia, where the world’s loneliest elephant has been rehomed thanks to a campaign by Cher.
