Government hectoring won’t get businesses ready for the oncoming Brexit car crash

An Institute of Directors poll found most businesses are ill-prepared for what’s coming, they’re too busy grappling with the pandemic to stand much chance of changing that, writes James Moore

A no-deal Brexit looms but Britain's pandemic battered businesses won't be ready (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

With another Brexit cliff edge looming, this time perhaps the final one, the government is embarking on another of its publicity campaigns in the hopes of persuading Britain and its businesses to “get ready” for the mess it’s creating for them.

There have been a number of these undertaken at great cost to little apparent effect. The one that ran this time last year cost the taxpayer £46m and it did succeed in reaching a lot of people. Trouble is they didn’t do a lot of getting ready, at least not according to a National Audit Office assessment of the exercise.

This time businesses are going to be told that “time is running out”, and it is, but it’s hard to see it having more of an impact. To the contrary.