Thread by @uk_domain_names

It's hard to see how the high street can ever really recover from the coronavirus.

If you're a mid-size "non-essential" chain, you could have anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of shops, all costing money but lying empty.

Any help for employees is at least a month away.

Any self-employed people who are involved with the business in any way won't be able to get help before June, and many won't even then because they don't qualify.

So you've got no money coming in, rent and other bills due immediately, and wobbly support somewhere down the road.

And then you glance up at the calendar, see 31 December 2020 circled in red.

That's the day the Brexit transition ends. That's the day your supply chains break, if they involve the EU in any way, shape or form.

Even when we have the coronavirus finally beat, what then?

Will an "all clear" siren sound in every corner of the UK, and people will swarm back to the shops and spend like nothing ever happened?

What about the millions who lost their jobs, or saw their hours cut?

So what do you do? Do you take on loans from the Government (secured against the personal assets of the directors, if the loans are over a certain amount)?

Or do you throw your hands up and cut your losses? (The business is gone, but at least your own assets can be saved...)

I don't have the answers - but I'm sure plenty of business owners will be searching their souls for them in the days and weeks to come.

And when things finally get back to "normal", we will discover just how far from the old normal our new normal really is. (Very, I fear.)