Just for the record, the IMF growth forecast for the UK is based on an orderly exit from the EU along with a transition period and not for Mr Johnson's "do or die" version of Brexit.

Of course, there may be a new deal brokered but, I wouldn't bank on it (pun intended).
And do your really think that "they can whistle for the 39 billion without a decent deal" is going to help the UK.

There is a grey area as far as the 39 billion is concerned. I have read several differing outlooks on the subject.
As far as Johnson bending the rules, isn't that what the speaker and several MP'S have been doing for the last three years.
BTW nice to get a reply without being called crazy. We both are entitled to our opinions and neither of us has the divine right to be correct.

Meanwhile the Italian banks are still struggling with massive debts. They are propped up by the European Central Bank, which is against EU rules. The German taxpayers are becoming concerned about constantly being asked to bail out Greece and Italy.
It’s no surprise to learn that the country to lose most with a collapse of the Italian banks is France. Hence the ECB bailing out the Italian banks. In fact they have taken one over to support it’s bad debts. The French exposure to this crisis is 275 billion euros . The German exposure is 58 billion euros a large part is with Deutsche Bank. Who are also struggling in the present economic climate. Our own exposure is with Barclays for approximately 15 billion euros.
If we remain in the EU we will be expected to contribute to any bailout. It’s no wonder the EU is desperate for our 39 billion per year contribution. Money is also leaving the EU mostly going to Switzerland. The present turmoil in France has been quite deliberately kept out of the mainstream media. Understandably ,as it shows a country virtually in revolt due to plummeting wages and living standards. The people in Paris are oblivious to this scenario, similar to the chattering class in London.
Merkel and macron are papering over the EU cracks at the moment , once Merkel leaves office things will change quite dramatically. We live in interesting times.

Small point of order.

£39 billion is the "divorce" bill and not our annual contribution, which I believe is around £13 billion ??

Point accepted.

I think one of the interesting things is that there are some internally consistent and fairly compelling reasons for leaving the EU. It is far from perfect. However, no single one of those arguments, or even a sensible combination, would have been enough to win the referendum, so the leave campaigns grabbed them all, and a few that are rubbish for good measure, and offered them all, tailored to individuals’ social media profiles.

Politically it was brilliant. Really.

From a policy perspective, not so much.

You can still make a strong case for leaving the EU in an alternative reality in which we have a workable plan. But we don’t, we never did and that is why we’re knackered.

Another separate point, not relating to the post l’ve quoted: It seems like democracy is getting cited a lot in some quarters to justify ‘our’ demands to the EU. That they’re somehow being unreasonable by not acceding to the wishes expressed by the British people and their parliament. But other countries have sovereignty too. We could vote to have free cheese from France, all of Germany’s bratwurst and Portugal’s virgin daughters, but it wouldn’t be anti-democratic for them to say ‘no’. We can’t just dictate a deal on our own terms. When Gove said we’d hold all the cards when we left, everybody knew that was nonsense, even at the time... right?

Absolutely true - the various Leave campaign's scattergun approach to selling the virtues of leaving the EU, based on whatever the Facebook algorithm told them people wanted to hear, has left them with a rather pyrrhic victory, in that everyone who "won" feels that they won something different - most of which can't be delivered in the pesky real world, which we are now rather abruptly running into.

I think you're analysis is spot-on - we are well and truly knackered; and if this was a quest for the sovereignty of parliament and 'taking back control' - it will be interesting to see how Boris Johnson's doomed plan to prorogue parliament and squat in no10 regardless of the results of any VoNC actually plays out. Well - as interesting as a tanking economy, food shortages, lack of medical supplies and mass job losses can be.

Reading all the comments about the EU makes me wonder how we managed before it was thought of.

It’s not some shining beacon. Real things rarely are, whereas imagined things can be more often.

The problem with Brexit is that it is moving, slowly, agonisingly, shamblingly from a myriad of imagined versions to single ragged eared reality. And with that, it becomes the position that needs to be defended, and the most successful arguments on any topic are generally based on attack.

Think of it as to how people shopped before the supermarkets came along.
Everything under one roof, immense buying power and not getting pushed around by smaller shops.

Our nation of shopkeepers now thinks that we can do better as a corner shop as they are unable to get on with their neighbours.
Mind you, we cant even get along with ourselves.

There were no forriners then so it wasn't an issue.

The world was very different back then.