10 days...

[Mordac]

Theresa May has 10 days to resolve the issue of the Irish border if she wants to make a Brexit breakthrough at a key summit next month, Donald Tusk warned today.

Donald Tusk: Britain has 10 days to fix the Irish border issue if it wants Brexit breakthrough

Given that the EU will insist on a hard border, as they have with all new members (the Poland / Ukraine - which used to very open and is now very much not - being a prime example) I'm not sure what the UK is supposed to be suggesting. It shouldn't be very difficult to have a slightly "harder" border between NI and the UK, even if it just means photo ID on all ferries etc. I've never done that journey so it may already be the case. Yet another example of the EU creating a problem, and forcing the UK to come up with a solution.

[m0n1k3r]

Theresa May has 10 days to resolve the issue of the Irish border if she wants to make a Brexit breakthrough at a key summit next month, Donald Tusk warned today.

Donald Tusk: Britain has 10 days to fix the Irish border issue if it wants Brexit breakthrough

Just shows that they need us more than we need them.

[AtW]

Given that the EU will insist on a hard border, as they have with all new members (the Poland / Ukraine - which used to very open and is now very much not - being a prime example)

Ukraine is not a EU member, there is hard border between it and Poland.

There will HAVE to be hard border if UK isn't part of the customs unions (and single market?) - EU got laws and obligations to countries that got trade deals with it, I am pretty certain under WTO rules customs would have to be enforced as otherwise it becomes a black hole.

Yet another example of the EU creating a problem, and forcing the UK to come up with a solution.

Are you on drugs? EU did not want Brexit, it was UKs decision, so ANY real world practical problems (that were widely predicted) arising from this are solely the fault of UK.

[AtW]

And I was assuming it was 10 days until you got married. Then I remembered no squirrel would be stupid enough.....

I am not stupid enough to get married in the first place, but if I did then I'd get a prenup unless it was with SueEllen...

[m0n1k3r]

Given that the EU will insist on a hard border

I thought it was the UK that insisted on taking "back" control over its borders (except for where it is not in the UK's interest, of course).

The EU has always had a strong, common border since the days of the EEC. The UK knows it. The UK encouraged it and signed up for it. It should not come as news to the British "negotiators" that the EU treaties continue to remain in force for the other 27 members, and no amount of demanding the EU to imagine or being creative is going to change that.

[sirja]

Given that the EU will insist on a hard border, as they have with all new members (the Poland / Ukraine - which used to very open and is now very much not - being a prime example) I'm not sure what the UK is supposed to be suggesting. It shouldn't be very difficult to have a slightly "harder" border between NI and the UK, even if it just means photo ID on all ferries etc. I've never done that journey so it may already be the case. Yet another example of the EU creating a problem, and forcing the UK to come up with a solution.

The degree of broder 'hardness' is directly proportional to how far the UK intends to diverge from the EU regulatory framework. Please understand this is the key issue here. Just imagine that the UK decides to no longer abide by the EU regulations on poultry production for example, in order to do a deal with the US(The US Commerce recently stated the UK would have to do this if it wants a deal), then in such a situation the EU would insist on hard border as food inspections would have to take place on all produce coming from the UK to ensure it meets EU standards.
If on the other hand the UK keeps the EU standards then a hard border is not required.

It all comes back to the 'Eat our cake and have it' Brexit approach, which is simply not sustainable.

[stek]

Given that the EU will insist on a hard border, as they have with all new members (the Poland / Ukraine - which used to very open and is now very much not - being a prime example) I'm not sure what the UK is supposed to be suggesting. It shouldn't be very difficult to have a slightly "harder" border between NI and the UK, even if it just means photo ID on all ferries etc. I've never done that journey so it may already be the case. Yet another example of the EU creating a problem, and forcing the UK to come up with a solution.

Just done England, Wales, Southern Ireland, Northern Ireland in just over a day. No ID required anywhere except when the Garda stopped me in Dublin Port, I know for a fact they’re hoping to catch folks on UK plates to sting them for VRT, not for immigration purposes.

There’s no way there’ll be a hard border in Ireland, CTA trumps EU FoM.

[stek]

Given that the EU will insist on a hard border, as they have with all new members (the Poland / Ukraine - which used to very open and is now very much not - being a prime example) I'm not sure what the UK is supposed to be suggesting. It shouldn't be very difficult to have a slightly "harder" border between NI and the UK, even if it just means photo ID on all ferries etc. I've never done that journey so it may already be the case. Yet another example of the EU creating a problem, and forcing the UK to come up with a solution.

Just done England, Wales, Southern Ireland, Northern Ireland in just over a day. No ID required anywhere except when the Garda stopped me in Dublin Port, I know for a fact they’re hoping to catch folks on UK plates to sting them for VRT, not for immigration purposes.

There’s no way there’ll be a hard border in Ireland, CTA trumps EU FoM.

[jamesbrown]

There’s no way there’ll be a hard border in Ireland, CTA trumps EU FoM.

Agreed. There are two possible orientations of hard border, north/south and east/west. Neither is credible. All sides have agreed that the former is unacceptable, and there’s zero chance that HMG will agree to the latter (in any case, it’s a red line for the DUP). That leaves two possible solutions: the UK as a whole remains in the CU or something that mirrors it closely (effective member) or the EU caves and accepts that the north/south border can remain frictionless and doesn’t represent a significant backdoor to the SM.

[SueEllen]

Agreed. There are two possible orientations of hard border, north/south and east/west. Neither is credible. All sides have agreed that the former is unacceptable, and there’s zero chance that HMG will agree to the latter (in any case, it’s a red line for the DUP). That leaves two possible solutions: the UK as a whole remains in the CU or something that mirrors it closely (effective member) or the EU caves and accepts that the north/south border can remain frictionless and doesn’t represent a significant backdoor to the SM.

And that means another general election.