The "cliff-edge" hasn't materialized because the UK is in a negotiated transition period during which nothing changes. That ends on December 31st, 2020. On January 1st, new arrangements are supposed to come into force -- except they haven't been agreed yet, apart from a customs barrier within the UK (between Northern Ireland and the mainland).

Meanwhile -- before COVID19 -- Sterling devalued by about 20%, the government began borrowing heavily to cover a yawning revenue gap, an economic slowdown cost the UK economy more than the gross total of all UK payments into EU funds since joining in 1974 (many of which were redistributed right back in the UK), and we have a prime minister who, when told that the Confederation of British Industry was worried about his Brexit policies, famously said "f*ck business".

Remember February/March, when everyone was sitting paralysed in the oncoming headlights of COVID19, wondering if it was going to be bad and if it was going to be necessary to make any changes? That's where we are with the end of the Brexit transition period, right now.

I had kind of forgotten about the consequences of Brexit - but a recent interview on Radio 4 with someone from the US Department of Agriculture reminded me of the kind of problems ahead - he seemed to regard the (relatively) high standards of animal welfare in UK farms to be the result of unnecessary regulations, which sounded rather alarming to me.

Because the cliff-edge has been put off repeatedly by delaying actually changing anything. It's current date is the end of this year, and there's not much indication it's going to change.