We can negotiate a deal with the EU in a year, and it's not the end of the world if we don't

Here we go again! After Boris Johnson’s crushing victory, the Remainerish Tendency hasn’t missed a beat in returning to the fray. The issue that is now causing acute angst is the possibility that we will leave the European Union by the end of next year without a trade deal. According to all the usual suspects, this is set to bring disaster. Does this ring a bell?

The context is the hitherto widespread, lazy assumption in the media and elsewhere that a big Johnson majority would allow the Prime Minister to sideline the serious eurosceptics in his party and go for a “soft” Brexit, involving an extension to the transition period and as close an association with the EU as possible.

This assumed that Mr Johnson wanted a soft Brexit and/or that achieving this is in his and the country’s interests. But why? It is typical of the Remainer mindset that they cannot get their head around the idea that Brexit is not some disaster whose scope and reach must be minimised, but rather a set of challenges to be met and opportunities to be seized.

Many have argued that trade negotiations with the EU will drag on for years, condemning businesses to an extended period of the very uncertainty that has so bedevilled their planning and reduced their investment. Yet Mr Johnson’s move last week to enshrine the date of the end of the transition period in law has cut through this argument. Unless you believe that this law will be overturned, then we will definitely leave the EU’s Customs Union and Single Market by the end of next year. The only remaining uncertainty is whether we leave with a trade deal or instead trade with the EU under World Trade Organisation terms.

The latter has been described as a “no-deal” departure from the EU. These two words have acquired talismanic importance. “No-deal” is widely regarded as “crashing out”. The “cliff-edge” is apparently back in business.