Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow.

As I wrote last night, yesterday the French authorities ran a trial of their immigration checks at Dover and at the Tunnel.

It was a bit more than that, as finctional tests were carried out last year, staff recruited and trained, software rolled out and what we saw yesterday was operational testing.

For the UK to get to the same point would require us to do over a year's work in under six weeks, when the system is going live and has to work to enable a single truck to board a ferry or a shuttle train.

When I say system, I mean systems. And these all have to dovetail into EU systems to prove compliance with SM and CU and other requirements.

When Johnson claims the UK is ready, this is the reality.

Not ready, not even beginning to get ready.

The UK can waive requirements on goods incoming to the UK, but that would only help French, Belgian and Dutch ports and operators. Not our own, which would leave miles of waiting trucks stacking up back to London along the M20 and M26.

Meanwhile, an "officially sensitive" document published and shared with all Government agencies, but leaked to the Guardian yesterday warned of “systemic economic crisis” in January 2021: “Winter 2020 could see a combination of severe flooding, pandemic influenza, a novel emerging infectious disease and coordinated industrial action, against a backdrop of the end of the [Brexit] transition period,”

And remember, the jam yesterday was only for checking passports, not freight documentation as that is not required yet. But will be in January deal or no deal, and that would be for each consignment on each truck. One halier has said, on average, they carry 300 consignements per truck, and hundreds of trucks per week. The amount of paperwork needed to continue to trade is going to be huge. And yet this is a consequence of leaving the SM and CU.

Experts warned. Brexiteers claimed it was more "project fear". Who do you think is right?

And remember, the decision to leave the SM and CU was the UK's, all of this could be avoided with just a political Brexit, by May decided over three years ago that's what Brexit meant, and that in doing so would create a regulatory border. Preparations should have begun then, if they had, the UK might have been ready.

But May and then Johnson refused to admit that a border was needed, everything would remain frictionless, even when trade experts said this wan't true.

So when the jams really start, as will the shortages, we will know where to lay the blame for the lack of preparations, and it won't be business.