[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by jfman

That's literally an arbitrary deadline. It's not done for anyone's benefit. Those are just numbers plucked out the air.

You're also ignoring the option to extend the transition period. It could easily have been drawn up into and agreement to have an interim period (say 3 months) to allow businesses to prepare, familiarise themselves with paperwork, processes etc.

You can't in some thread seriously argue that businesses should be given every chance to survive by easing lockdown and then on the other that they should, at short notice, be given additional burdens after numerous, contradictory, positions by Government policies in the preceding four years.

You're letting yourself down there, jfman. Apart from the intial oxymoron, the dates were hard and fast.

Your final paragraph describes disconnected matters. Indeed the quiet period would have been the time for businesses to get into gear.