Brexit Bulletin: The Irish issue returns

Follow Us Get the newsletter Sign up here to get the Brexit Bulletin in your inbox every weekday. What's Happening? Disagreements over the Irish border are back. A dispute over an office in Belfast may appear to be small potatoes, but to Micheal Martin, Ireland's likely next leader, it's a sign Britain is already backsliding on the promises it made before it left the European Union. The spat appears trivial, but it's actually a reminder that one of the thorniest issues of Brexit—how to keep the volatile Irish border free of checkpoints after Britain leaves the single market—has far from gone away. As negotiators prepare to resume talks next week, the wider disagreement over Northern Ireland could undermine the two sides' chances of reaching a trade deal by the end of this year. Dara Doyle and Ian Wishart have the full details here. The crunch will come in June, the deadline for deciding whether to extend the negotiations. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ruled out asking for more time, but is facing calls to do just that. And Covid-19 may have given the government an incentive to push on with Brexit: the economic costs are likely be dwarfed by those of the virus. Here's what EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan told RTE on Thursday: "U.K. politicians and government have certainly decided that Covid is going to be blamed for all the fallout from Brexit and my perception of it is they don't want to drag the negotiations out into 2021 because they can effectively blame Covid for everything." That makes it all the likelier that the last few months of this year will be marked by high-risk negotiations to seal an ever-narrower deal before the transition period expires. The scope for mishaps is increasing daily. — Edward Evans Beyond Brexit Johnson's office plays down reports that the U.K. is about to significantly ease its lockdown. After getting so much wrong it's no surprise Johnson is being cagey now, Therese Raphael argues for Bloomberg Opinion. In the U.S. another three million people filed for unemployment benefits in the past week. The Virgin Media-O2 merger means cable cowboy John Malone has proved the market wrong again, writes Chris Bryant. The pandemic is disrupting the illegal drug trade. Europe's wealthiest man is plotting his rebound. Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin got into a coronavirus Twitter spat. Sign up here for our daily coronavirus newsletter, and subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast. Click here for the latest maps and data on the spread of coronavirus. Want to keep up with Brexit? You can follow us @Brexit on Twitter, and listen to Bloomberg Westminster every weekday. It's live at midday on Bloomberg Radio and is available as a podcast too.  Share the Brexit Bulletin:  Colleagues, friends and family can sign up here.  For full EU coverage, try the Brussels Edition. For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.   Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Brexit Bulletin newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022