Phillipe Lamberts, a Belgian MEP was on Radio 4 this morning. It's always nice to hear someone from the European parliament who seems to know what they're talking about. The interview was interesting for a couple of reasons. He expected the transition period to be longer than two years, possibly even three or four. The Brexiteers will be as mad as hell at the mere suggestion of this, but it was the Irish border problem where he offered the most clarity.
He described the problem in Ireland as a trilemma, which is the first time I heard this word in connection with the border issue but it demonstrates why the deal last week may come back to haunt the PM.
He once again confirmed that the position of the UK government was contradictory. They have ruled out every solution to avoiding a hard border but say they won't have one anyway. It is not possible to have an open border unless there is regulatory alignment in NI or with the whole of the UK. But knowing how little the Brexiteers understand of the issue I can only conclude that Mrs May is pulling the wool over their eyes. They genuinely think there are technological solutions that can be implemented. But Mr Lambert cannot see how this can be done - hence the trilemma he talked of.
Is the hard border to go? Is it exiting the single market and the customs union that will be ditched? Is keeping NI and the UK aligned perhaps not such a red line? He didn't hedge about regulatory alignment either, he talked of NI remaining in the customs union and the single market.
