'Brexit means Brexit'.

Except when you have remainers in charge.

We could be seeing the Tories badly damage themselves and rekindle Ukip.

Unless they sort it out Ukip will be coming back strong because lots of Tory voters and some Labour ones will feel they have been lied too.

Ultimately perhaps that will only be positive for Corbyn.....though I might be wrong about that as there are many northern leavers who vote Labour.

Edited by Stirlingsays (27 May 2018 5.07pm)

Question on this - in this no deal scenario, in your opinion (we still don't know the govt's opinion btw), what would this mean for Northern Ireland and it's border with Eire?

I've been trying to think of how this can be solved and (unsurprisingly) can't come up with anything.

Where are tariffs collected though? And standards checked? Checks done for rules of origin? Also things like Quotas and Embargoes? So much harder to manage if it's allowed to dissipate into the hands of private companies.

HMRC have predicted this kind of "customs partnership" approach would cost UK £20bn (£350m a week). It's also been rejected by the EU.

I don't know. I sense that this "simple solution" would be anything but and would be expensive to manage for UK business (and therefore consumers) (and Irish ones) and would put the GFA at risk. I don't think the EU would accept a breach of the integrity of it's market like the one you describe.

It seems like a bit of a non-starter to me.

OK. Shall we put that in the draft legal text on the withdrawal? I'm sure the EU won't want any more details.

I think that could be in the "Max Fac" option which is currently also a non-starter as it relies on things not yet in existence. I'm sure one day there could be tech to minimise border presence or even eliminate it. But I doubt we're anywhere close to that.

Also we've not even started building lorry parks or improving facilities at our docks or developed an immigration policy etc., let alone started work on blockchain led customs tech!

Nigel Lawson, a former chair of the Vote Leave campaign during the EU referendum and one of tens of thousands of Britons living in France, is to apply for his official French residency card.

The former chancellor said he had started the process of applying for one of the cards, known as a carte de séjour, which British expatriates are being encouraged to obtain to help bolster their rights after the UK withdraws from the EU, but added that he was “not particularly worried”.