Chris

There will be trade, but there will also be customs checks, so fewer lorries per day will be able to pass through each port, especially while HMRC staff get used to things. At the moment the throughput of vehicles through our channel ports and the infrastructure for allowing them to arrive and depart is all built on the assumption that they don’t need to hang around.

It is entirely possible for the U.K. and the EU to implement trusted partner schemes that will remove most of the admin that will cause delays in the short term, but that is going to require more creativity and goodwill than has been on show thus far.

Don’t forget, it is decades since the EU has had to deal with a major, global, non-member economy on its immediate border. In a sense you have to forgive them for being so inflexible. They’ve been used to dictating terms to smaller neighbours. But we will get there, and ultimately, especially in the event of No Deal, it will be the Irish that are screaming for it, because whatever chaos you see at Dover will be wrought a hundred times worse on the entire Irish economy.