Regulations and red tape

One of the biggest problems facing us if we leave the EU is regulation or, as Brexiteers would say, "red tape". Those red tape bonfires we were promised are receding into those fabled sunny uplands as Brexit becomes a veritable tape machine.

The Irish border is the biggest headache. The Good Friday agreement has given us peace in Northern Ireland, but it depends upon free movement of goods and people. Brexiteers wish to prevent the free movement of people and - by dropping EU regulations - will also prevent free movement of goods.

Mrs May has attempted to fudge this, hoping that she can get a Brexit deal first and then sort out the border afterwards. If only she could - Border Force and Customs both need a lot longer than a few months to get in shape to deal with what is coming. However, the Republic wants to know right now what we intend so they can plan themselves. Fudge is no good for them.

Even worse, part of Mrs May's fudge has been to promise contradictory things to different people. She promised the DUP regulatory alignment with the rest of the UK, promised her own Brextremists regulatory divergence from the EU... and promised the Republic that Northern Ireland will retain full regulatory alignment with the EU.

Her get-out clause was that EU regulatory alignment would be temporary. When we work out how to police the border without physical border controls then divergence could begin.

One hope is that the rest of the EU will put pressure on the Republic to accept a hard border so that Brexit is not a complete shambles. However, France in particular strongly supports the Republic's position as they too want to know what the UK is aiming for. Forcing clarity over Ireland will force the UK government to lay out their real plans.

If they have any.