Andy Richardson: 'Everybody needs good neighbours'
Amid the worst economic crash in 300 years and the first global pandemic for a century, thank goodness we don’t have to worry about severing ties with our closest neighbours.
After all, as Jason and Kylie famously told us, everybody needs good neighbours.
With just days to go before Boris Johnson’s deadline for a post-Brexit trade deal, it’s good to know we have an ‘oven-ready’ deal.
That plan will assure close integration, co-operation on security and frictionless trade for the automotive, manufacturing and food-related industries to prevent job losses, additional costs and punitive restrictions that will cause more unemployment and regulation at a time when businesses are on their knees.
We all believed ‘oven-ready’ Boris when he told us a deal was almost there, just as we believed him when he told us £350 million a week would go to the NHS and there was no Russian meddling in elections. Why wouldn’t we?
Now, however, it emerges that ministers assume Britain will crash out of Europe without a deal during the hardest of Brexits – something that the 17.4 million didn’t really vote for, much less the 16.1 million Remainers. We can look forward to queues at the borders, uncompetitive terms for business and delays on deliveries as the economy suffers the second seismic shock in just a year.
Meanwhile, London is LondonGrad, where the Lords are linked to Moscow cronies, a blind eye is turned to Russian interference and three successive Prime Ministers have ignored Vladimir Putin’s interference as billions in Russian money have sloshed into the capital.
The devil is usually in the detail and it’s been almost three weeks since the Government provided a £1.5 billion bailout for the arts. Little has trickled down to theatres. Across the UK, venues are cutting staff as they run out of money and lack the not-before trading date they so desperately need.
In March, billionaire theatrical impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh predicted a return to normality by late June. Now the entire industry is mothballing itself until spring 2021 and beyond. When the Covid-19 musical is written it will have a familiar title: Frozen.
The devil is also in the detail for the cleaners, binmen, bus drivers and carers who kept the nation running when Covid hit. They’ve been cut out of Rishi Sunak’s above-inflation pay rise.
