Ministers should not bet on the coronavirus recession providing economic cover for a no-deal Brexit

Advisers seem to be calculating that it will be difficult to disentangle the economic impact of a no-deal Brexit from the fallout from the Covid slump, thus making it less likely they will be blamed for inflicting unnecessary further suffering on the UK population. Ben Chu looks at whether they’re right or not

For a certain type of politician, lower cost means a lower risk of being held accountable (EPA)

There’s a well-known tendency for people to loosen their purse strings generally when they buy a house.

So they’ll splurge on fancy new furniture, high-end kitchen appliances, and all sorts of other things too.

Why? Because the outlay on the house is so large relative to their normal outgoings that it makes things that they would normally think were too pricey seem reasonable, trivial even.