The devil and the detail

As I write this short post, the Brext Secretary, Stephen Barclay, is in the Commons trying to explain to MPs how the proposed border on the island of Ireland is going to work.

He's not very sure himself.

If very basic details like this are unclear to the very person who was supposed to have negotiatied and written them, then what hope for the rest of us, and more importantly, businesses who use the border in order to be profitable?

Do they need to fill in declarations? From NI to UK? From UK to NI? Or both?

These are critical details, as the UK could leave the EU in seven day's time. So this stuff should all be nailed down and easy to follow and easy enough so that a Brexiteer could explain it.

But they can't, because as soon as Brexit encounters reality or the detail is written down, it falls apart.

This was always the way.

And probably the most basic error, or oversight from them is how Brexit would affect the union of the UK and Great Britain.

Brexit will lead to Irish unification, sooner or later. Maybe within a generation, maybe sooner.

And both the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales have both said they will not grant the WAB approval, which apparently both devolved assemblies need to give, but Johnson is quite happy to trample over that convention too, to deliver an English-exceptionalist Brexit.

In the words of DAG, the UK will leave the EU by simple operation of international law in seven days. Unless there is an extension or revokation. There is not enough time now to leave with a WA on the 31st in order to pass all legislation