Is the UK edging towards deciding it wants a UK-EU customs union & single market?

I have a piece in the Irish Times this morning, available here.

2 replies on “Is the UK edging towards deciding it wants a UK-EU customs union & single market?”

‘… there is no such thing as a constructively ambiguous customs border: either goods are subject to the same regulations, or they are not.’

A bevvy of Denis Healey’s Prufrockian bollock-less bullocks chasing a mythical heifer around Hyde Park springs to mind …..

meanwhile ….

‘The committee remains deeply concerned over the “threat of chaos” if HMRC’s new customs system is not ready in time for Brexit, as customs declarations are set to rise fivefold to 255m a year.

Ms Hillier said: “We were deeply concerned by the lack of progress on this back-up plan. It is now alarming to note such weak contingency planning extends across Government departments.

“The volume of traffic at the border under current arrangements is substantial – in 2016, around 300 million people and 500 million tonnes of freight crossed it.

“After Brexit, the number of decisions required about people or goods crossing could more than treble and more than quadruple respectively.

“These figures should concern all in Government and in our view its current approach is not fit for purpose.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-news-uk-border-planning-government-northern-ireland-customs-union-single-market-a8097281.html

That red line through the English Channel and the North Sea appears to be diluting to a soft pink ….

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