The US/Canada border would be a good model - they have the busiest land border in the world. The Ambassador Bridge heading into Detroit carries the same volume of lorries each day as pass through the Port of Dover with most processing having been done electronically in advance. Further modernising and streamlining customs procedures is going to benefit more than just UK/EU trade of course...
I read somewhere that they have a streamlined self-certification customs procedure specially for Canadian suppliers of parts to the US car industry. The idea is to ensure that the supply chain doesn't get screwed up because of customs checks. If the EU is prepared to play ball, that could be the solution for us, both at the Irish border and at the Channel. Big 'if', of course, but it's a practical approach if the politics works out.
A brilliantly bonkers article. I particularly liked this juxtaposition:
“There’s no magic bullet. It just doesn’t exist,” said Dr Maguire, who has just returned from a Nato-sponsored research trip to the El Paso/Juarez crossing point, one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world.
In the next paragraph the very same guy says:
“The technology is certainly there to produce a smart border and in fact there are many of them in existence already, such as between the US and Canada and Israel and Palestine."
So which is the more realistic model for the Irish border - Mexico/US, or US/Canada?
Answers on a postcard to Michel Barnier.
Um, are we really holding up the Israel/Palestine border as an example to be followed? It's a bit concrete-y these days...
No, we're holding up the Canada/US one, which is a very good model.
That's...kind of a relief . I believe it was you who highlighted (highlit?) the other day that a statistical method of border enforcement (select random samples and inspect them thoroughly) would work (at the price of low-level criminality), wheras a deterministic method (track everything everywhere) is a fuckup waiting to happen. I think you're right.
The "point" being we can't really leave a la Hotel California? In which case it's a prison. So do we resort to live ammunition to fulfill the democratic will of the British people?
And you thought my 'rogue island' comment was offensive? What a destructive blind alley you are pushing this country down. Shame on you.
Well that got a response. Lol.
It's supposed to be a club with an exit procedure, but apparently some are suggesting it's Hotel California. Believe you me that is the road to perdition. We voted to leave, try to subsume us into a USE and I cannot imagine that it's going to be sweetness and light. Quite the opposite.
Ultimately that's the only way to be free of European politics if that's what you desire. Britain will always be a part of it, whether in the EU or not.
That is quite right - we will always be a part of the local politics, in the EU or not, so it isn't the end of the world to not be in it, even if there are downsides.
Don't they have more important things to worry about? May in particular.
Desperate to get approval from somewhere, I imagine. I cannot see the problem myself, even for silly season it seems pretty weaksauce as stories go.
No doubt it'll take longer and be more expensive..... much like renovating parliament. They should do a full decant and get it over and done with as quickly as possible.
Don't they have more important things to worry about? May in particular.
Desperate to get approval from somewhere, I imagine. I cannot see the problem myself, even for silly season it seems pretty weaksauce as stories go.
No doubt it'll take longer and be more expensive..... much like renovating parliament. They should do a full decant and get it over and done with as quickly as possible.
Perhaps we could borrow Strasbourg while they're not using it.
Vince Cable's judgment seems as askew as when IIRC he confided in attractive journalists, thinking they were constituents. It's really hard to see what he or the LibDems have to gain by snuggling up to the uber-tweeter.
Don't they have more important things to worry about? May in particular.
Desperate to get approval from somewhere, I imagine. I cannot see the problem myself, even for silly season it seems pretty weaksauce as stories go.
No doubt it'll take longer and be more expensive..... much like renovating parliament. They should do a full decant and get it over and done with as quickly as possible.
Perhaps we could borrow Strasbourg while they're not using it.
Utterly ridiculous. Decamping once per month to please the French.
Don't they have more important things to worry about? May in particular.
Desperate to get approval from somewhere, I imagine. I cannot see the problem myself, even for silly season it seems pretty weaksauce as stories go.
No doubt it'll take longer and be more expensive..... much like renovating parliament. They should do a full decant and get it over and done with as quickly as possible.
Perhaps we could borrow Strasbourg while they're not using it.
Well its only available once per month though isn't it? Not really enough.
But very good proof that everyone does stupid, wasteful things.
Wonder if Chapman is paid well enough to afford Carter Ruck's fees xD
Is it possible to plead insanity in a libel case?
Unless the libel is serious enough to be criminal, I believe the test is how damaging it is. If it's one of 200 tweets, many of them apparentl bonkers, that probably reduces the damages for any individual one, in the same way as we'd struggle to sue SeanT for saying we're traitors since he routinely says that about all kinds of people.
He's either not well or he's in dire need of a slap. Either way I'm not sure why his wife hasn't snatched his phone off him by now. Whether he's in full control of his actions or not, his continuing to tweet is not in his best interests.
Comments
Don't they have more important things to worry about? May in particular.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/897889972967100421
But very good proof that everyone does stupid, wasteful things.
https://twitter.com/jameschappers/status/897844891048448000
He'll assume someone else stole his phone and was having a laugh.
The argument boils down to is our parliament sovereign or are the people sovereign. The remainers believe the former, brexiters think the latter