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It will be Christmas.
But hardly any celebration.
The last time something similar happened was in 1647. At that time, the Puritans in the London Parliament were forbidden to celebrate Christmas in England. This time it was for religious reasons, at least true Protestants wouldn’t be allowed to have so much fun. But the decision led to a civil war.
So now it became Boris Johnson, who endlessly reluctantly went down in history as the second prime minister to cancel the holiday celebration. This time, it was understood as the spread of an infection. The new strain of the virus discovered in Kent is suspected of being up to 70 percent more contagious.
As if this wasn’t enough, parts of Kent County were turned into a truck parking lot during the day. Yesterday, France not only closed the border to travelers from the United Kingdom, but stopped all manned cargo traffic through the English Channel. The stop would be in place for 48 hours and the decision was made, according to the French government, to have time to develop some sort of covid-testing system for truckers.
British food chains immediately warned of a shortage of fresh produce in the country. Lettuce, broccoli, citrus and cauliflower will run out of British stores unless transport routes to France are quickly opened, they announced. Part of the reason is that poor Kent County has already experienced long truck lines in recent weeks.
January 1 is coming Britain, as is well known, will leave the common market and the EU customs union. Brexit will be implemented in practice.
Not just in theory.
Despite the fact that there are less than ten days to go to this date, no one yet knows what will happen on New Year’s Eve (except that all parties are canceled).
Brexit negotiations have stalled and Boris Johnson has yet to announce whether he is ready to do what will soon be the only thing left to do: pull Britain out of the EU without a trade deal.
Already at the beginning of In December, many companies began stockpiling goods and products to cope with the chaos of Brexit in January. The result was truck queues in Kent. And now the new strain of the virus has caused more. What will happen with a hard Brexit on top of all this, few Britons today even dare to think.
At the Daily Telegraph, the former editor-in-chief, Baron Charles Moore, tried to reassure people. He said he was old enough to remember when he was at least normal with a shortage of fruits and vegetables during the winter. If a tough Brexit now leads to a shortage of lettuce and tomatoes, you can always eat root vegetables.
He even suggested a Brexit cookbook with good recipes.
This is certainly an interesting development. A few years ago, the Brexit arguments were primarily about free trade – they saw a global Britain emerge that had freed itself from Brussels protectionism. But today, many of them, like Charles Moore, have chosen to exchange nationalistic tones. One: chew-on-your-plant-roots-and-be-happy-with-the-products-that-can-actually-be-produced-in-the-UK. Yes, what is a Spanish tomato?
For several months he has The British authorities have prepared themselves in what is known as the “D20”. It is the project that will avoid business chaos after the New Year if there is a collapse outside the EU. The preparations were said to be going well. There was no need to worry, he told himself.
But that was before the new strain of the virus.
Before the international travel bans.
And in the face of the current commercial chaos.
Now? Who knows.
