The government looks like it's scrambling to produce a plan to deal with the Irish border problem according to this report in The Independent HERE. The EU's own Smart Border 2.0 report is being considered, but it requires infrastructure at the border and a massively controversial scheme to ask people to pre-register before crossing the border at points where there won't be checks. I think it's a measure of the rising panic.
There are literally days to go and I assume what is happening inside government is the hasty preparation of a highly complex document setting out what will appear on the surface like a reasonable solution. Brexiteers will throw it in the face of Michel Barnier and say there you are, a solution.
But the details will reveal several things. Firstly that substantial infrastructure will be needed on all crossing points. On designated ones it will be even more obvious and a target for the IRA. Secondly, it will be stunningly complicated and open to any number of frauds and scams.
But it will be important for the EU not to dismiss it immediately. They need to prepare to raise the problems and point out the contradictions. They will not get a sympathetic ear in the pro Brexit press but need detailed arguments that ordinary people, on both sides of the border as well as in the wider UK can understand and recognise.
This is perhaps the most controversial and difficult issue that could make or break Brexit or lead to a flare up of violence in Ireland and political difficulties for years, to say nothing of the fragmenting of the UK. It is shaming that we are cobbling something together in the last few hours on such an important issue. Doesn't it speak volumes about Brexit and the way we're handling it?
