Here at Chatty, there’s nothing we like better than live entertainment, and especially live comedy, so we’re really excited now that the Edinburgh Festival is on. We can look forward to comedians we know and have seen before and plenty of others we haven’t.

Performers have poured blood, sweat, tears and cash into taking their shows to Edinburgh, and all without absolute assurance that sufficient tickets will be sold to recover their outlay. Financially, it’s a risky business. 

One local comic, Ian McNapton, told us, “There’s a chance I might get my money back, but no guarantee, and because of the state of the Pound, some turns are demanding to be paid in other currencies so they don’t see the value of their earnings eroded by Boris every time he speaks. Some of us have worked out a plan to cover both eventualities. If I make a profit, I’ll be paid in a more stable currency, like the Zimbabwean Pobblebead, but if I make a loss, I’ll take it in Pounds so that the real loss diminishes in value before I even leave the stage.”

This sort of intelligent, logical thinking has annoyed economists and HMRC officials alike, but well known businesses have been thinking in similar terms.

Although Amazon has gone to some lengths in the past to prove that it has no profits in the UK worth mentioning, it now seems keen to book as much in profits here as possible on the basis that the actual tax liability will erode to an amount somewhere in the region of not very much at all by the time it has to be paid as the Pound continues its trajectory towards oblivion.

Meanwhile, Brexit continues.