Philip Hammond in The Times:

”Boris Johnson asserts, ever more boldly, that we will leave the EU on October 31, “with or without a deal”. But as his sister has reminded us, he is backed by speculators who have bet billions on a hard Brexit — and there is only one outcome that works for them: a crash-out no-deal Brexit that sends the currency tumbling and inflation soaring. So they, at least, will be reassured to see no evidence at all that his government has seriously pursued a deliverable deal; still less that it has been pursuing a deal that could get us out by October 31.”

I wonder if any of our Brexit-supporters here could explain to the rest of us precisely how such a crash-out, no-deal Brexit Would benefit the 64 million or so people in the U.K. who don’t have billions staked on it?

I do have to smile sympathetically, too, when I hear Brexiteers saying they “Just want it done and over on 31/10/19”. Of course, even if we crash out on 31/10/19, it’s wont be ‘done and over’, it won’t be ‘the end’ of Brexit, it will be just the beginning. There’s no such thing as a ‘no-deal Brexit’ - the deals will still have to be done. It’s just that, instead of being done pre-Leaving, when we have a strong negotiating position, they will have to be done post-Leaving, when we will be in a far weaker position.

Never have so many been given it straight up the arse by so few.