[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Hugh

No one ever plans for "worst case scenarios" - we planned for the loss of one site out of three geographically diverse sites, we never planned for losing two or three, because the implication was that the country had been nuked or bio/chem attacks had crippled the country, so no one would really be that fussed about education or financial lending in that scenario.

You plan for "reasonable worst case scenario" of the perceived situation , obviously because as you say a worst case scenario could be anything...... from the planet being hit by a comet, to a nuclear attack from North Korea.

We are talking about small to medium businesses here - after the Brexit Referendum, everyone (inc. businesses) were told that a deal would be reached; it’s only in the last year or so that things "heated up" and the likelihood of "no deal" became apparent; this is at the same time as COVID hit, so no, most of the people I know who run small businesses (employing under a hundred people) had contingency plans in place for a No Deal Brexit, because they didn’t know what the impact of that would be.

We haven't got a "no deal Brexit" but it was absolutely clear from the start the our relationship with the EU was going to change - it was either going to change a lot or a little but it was going to change.

they should have called no deal earlier or got an extension, getting a deal so close to deadline caused these problems not businesses

This is a fair point and the correct thing to do would have been to agree a much longer transition period after the deal was to agreed so that both sides could ensure that they could complete all the necessary paperwork and regulations.

---------- Post added at 11:32 ---------- Previous post was at 11:28 ----------

Originally Posted by jfman

A business paying excessive costs to cover “worst case scenarios” loses business to the one down the road who isn’t paying out unnecessary costs and strips down what is needed to reduce costs/increase profits. That’s the profit seeking motive and entrepreneurial spirit in a nutshell.

or The business that investigates the outcomes of potential scenarios and mitigates against them continues to trade where the one down the road that saved money and didn't can't trade and goes out of business. Smart entrepreneurial spirit in a nutshell.