Mr. Johnson says he needs to keep the no-deal option on the table to give him leverage in talks in Brussels, because an abrupt exit would also damage continental economies, if not as much as Britain's.
The government had resisted calls from retail and freight business groups for a short-term relaxation of immigration rules while a larger UK workforce was developed.
Nearly 20 years after the Suez Canal had first been completed, which granted the British the quickest possible journey time between the home Islands and India by way across the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
Now I know what you're thinking if you live in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, the UK or god forbid within France itself, then you already know that you're not very far away from France.