Weekend Brexit

The EU announced that it was rejecting a key part of May's Chequers plan, in that it would not allow a third country to collect its taxes.

This is before the UK could think of a way to design and make an IT system work.

Anyone who has followed Brexit and the EU's position, will not be surprised by this. But then that was the point of the ERG's amendments, to make May's plan unacceptable to the EU.

Meanwhile, reports in The Times today, that the Government is shelving plans to publish weekly warnings on preparations needed for a no deal, as talk thus far has alarmed the media, where instead of there being no downsides, just considerable upsides, to having to plan the Armed Forces moving essential supplies around the country.

Yesterday, (Saturday), there was strong winds in The Channel, meaning some ferry sailings got cancelled on what was the busiest day of the year as all schools in UK were now closed and family holidays were due to begin. We only just got out of the Deal Road to drive to Whitfied to get to Tesco, and we had to come back via Pineham and Guston as traffic was by then stationary.

And all day traffic built meaning that by early evening, traffic was solid between Dover and Folkestone, and up through Whitfield on the A2.

For us Dovorians, getting around on such a day is just possible, but this is going to be the norm next March, with lorries driving through the town to try to get to the front of the queue getting to the port. Only there will be no end to it. This is the reality of Brexit in Dover, and what it means for us. And as freight cannot get to the port will also mean that shops around us will have their supplies caught up in the jams too, so we will one of the first to suffer shortages.

And pretending this isn't going to happen will just make the panicking much worse when it comes. And it will come.