Journalists are savouring this Christmas – next year’s will likely be cancelled by Brexit

With the end of the initial transition period set to 31 December 2020, the festive period will be put on hold for newsrooms up and down the country

Journalists are generally given to sardonic humour – it gets us through the day – but even for us, “Get Brexit Done” is beginning to wear.

If only it were true. If only all the Irish backstop explainers we have to periodically knock out, the analyses of Franco-British relations, the opinion articles on hard vs soft – if only Groundhog Day ended on 31 January 2020.

But it won’t, because Brexit 2: The Trade Deals is just getting started.

This time next year, the chances are that talks on the future of the UK-US special relationship won’t be finished; that the new UK Australian-style points system for immigration won’t be operational; that the British public will be panic-buying loo roll, French wine and spare parts for their BMWs.

And I mean this exact time next year, because some bright bureaucrat set the end date for the initial transition period to 31 December 2020, a date Boris Johnson is about to put into law (so no extensions).

In other words, not only do we also have another year of Brexit journalism ahead of us, but Christmas 2020 is also cancelled.

Yours,

Sean O’Grady

Associate editor