The boss of the BDI – Germany’s equivalent of the CBI – has attacked a possible Brexit extension, saying that a no deal in March would be preferable to more uncertainty which simply led to no deal anyway several months down the line. Dieter Kemp asked the obvious question of “what will change in three to four weeks?” if there is simply an extension for its own sake…

Kemp, who represents 100,000 companies, added that German companies were prepared for a no deal in March not May, saying that “the economy can live better with bad conditions than with uncertainty”. In logistical terms Kemp is probably right, but he is putting a bit of a brave face on it given Germany’s deepening manufacturing slump…

Indeed, just this morning the Bank of England said that the UK financial system was prepared for no deal, but the EU was at risk due to Brussels’ “lack of action”. Yet kamikaze Cabinet ministers are still determined to hand all the cards over to the EU by taking no deal off the table…