Anand Menon

This will probably be the most unpredictable election I have ever known, is it Brexit or is it not? We don't know. Second, the election is as volatile as ever and, thirdly, the potential for tactical voting - and tactical voting to go wrong - is very high given the Leave-Remain split.

When you reach a deal at the 11th hour and don't adequately tell the affected parties what it means for them, issues like this are inevitable.

There might be closer cooperation, but I doubt it at the moment. What's more concerning is the government's gaslighting. They don't admit that there's a problem ; they play it down ; they say to wait 10 years. Which one is it ? Is it all fine or do we need to wait 10 years ? And what are the people currently suffering supposed to do in that time ?

If there is no-deal then there is a real danger of both sides spiraling downwards and blaming one another, possibly ending in a nasty standoff, we saw during the early days of the pandemic the UK's reluctance to work with the EU in key areas. How bad could that get if talks end in October, then the virus surges in November?

There is a certain logic to saying let's deal with both economic disruptions at once, from supply chains to the way that all of the economy is run, everything is going to have a change as a result of this virus. So, even though the two things are not really related and might make the other worse, I can see some logic politically in doing it all at the same time.