Reply to post: Re: Well

Re: Well

I am disgusted that we haven't started building the Irish border yet, or the new customs systems. I originally wrote "astonished", but then I remembered this is politicians we're talking about.

When we handed in our notice, we had 2 years till we exit the EU. We knew that. We knew that a deal might not happen, and we might have a hard no-deal Brexit. So we should have had plans in place, and started implementing it where needed, so we were ready - e.g. Irish border, new customs systems, recruiting customs & immigration people, etc. If a deal happens, then when it's signed and ratified by everyone _then_ we could cancel / change those projects.

Now we have no plans and cannot possibly be ready for a hard no-deal Brexit, it would be an absolute disaster for us. The rest of Europe doesn't care, it's mostly not their problem. This means Europe has a great negotiating position, and we have a really weak one. It also means if European politicians decide not to deal for their own home-country political reasons, we're screwed.

And yes, I know that building a hard border in Northern Ireland would piss off the Irish (ex?-)terrorists, but one of the major planks of Brexit was ending free movement of people between the UK and EU so of course that means a hard border between Northern Ireland and ROI.