According to Politico (HERE) we are about to publish proposals for a transitional customs arrangement and for the Irish border problem sometime next week (14th August). These are said to be part of a "big push" over the next couple of months and will be the first of up to a dozen position papers to be published to show we want a smooth exit from the EU and that we are not dragging our feet. Another two months will take us to October and mean we have used a quarter of the allotted time for negotiating and we are just finishing publishing position papers!
No doubt the EU will be pleased to hear this but I note the Politico report says about the transitional customs arrangement that it will be published "if it is agreed politically". This surely is the give away? After fourteen months of intensive planning there is still no consensus in cabinet about what it is we are looking for.
The government is like a nervous student who has just finished a piece of work but cannot bring themselves to show it to a supervisor in case it is criticised. The EU and the Irish government has been calling for details of how we see the border issue for months but here we are four months in to the two year negotiating window and not only have we not published anything on the thorniest issue of the Irish border, we have not even reached a political decision between the twenty three members of the cabinet!
The former head of the diplomatic service, Sir Simon Fraser says (HERE) the negotiations "have not begun well" and that we have more or less wasted four months. How right he is.
