Brexit Bulletin: Ventilators and Supermarket Shelves
Brexit Bulletin: Ventilators and Supermarket Shelves
(Bloomberg) --
What’s Happening? Political attention is focused on responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Brexit is inevitably making the effort more complicated.
Countries need to come together, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says—but so far his government, despite being eligible, has refused to join a European Union program to boost the supply of vital equipment for keeping ill patients alive.
Critics say this puts ideology before lives, especially when the National Health Service is desperately short of ventilators. But Downing Street says the U.K. is no longer a member of the EU—and that British companies are stepping in to plug the shortfall.
Meanwhile, the empty supermarket shelves we’ve all seen in recent days are a reminder of how fragile Britain’s supply chains are. This week, the logistics industry formally called for Britain’s final parting with the EU at the end of the year to be postponed, saying hauliers can’t deal with the disruption of both Covid-19 and Brexit.
The virus has put normal life on hold—for now. The Olympics have been delayed, and the same increasingly likely to happen to Johnson's own totemic project. But once the pandemic has passed, expect Brexit to figure in any future inquiry into the government’s handling of Covid-19.
Beyond Brexit
- Doctors in Spain are now facing terrible choices: being forced to decide who to let die from Covid-19.
- A U.K. business rescue plan is “too complicated” to stop mass bankruptcies.
- Quick rebound? The Bank of England now fears the U.K. economy could face long-term damage.
- The world has so much oil and so little demand that we’re running out of places to store it all.
- Billionaires want Americans back at work. Employees aren’t so sure.
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