"Hard border" has come to mean checkpoints, towers, and fences with barbed wire all over them. Like they were during The Troubles.

Yes, but they were never there. Well, some were, in the odd place or two. But the border was never 'sealed' in any sense that means anything at all. Even at the height of the troubles there were vast swathes of the border that were unsecured and unpatrolled. They basically staked out the main roads and the obvious crossing spots and that was it. There was never a wall, like between Israel and Palestine or the old Berlin segregation. There was never hundreds of miles of barbed wire and sentry posts every hundred yards.

There is simply not the resources, either domestic police wise or in terms of the whole UK military, to completely secure the border in any meaningful way. We can't even secure 30 miles of roadways around Calais, let alone 300 miles of Irish border and all the relevant coastlines. It would cost tens of billions of pounds, thousands of men and years to even begin to attempt to and it would be a frankly fruitless act if we did.

In all the list of utterly cloud cuckoo things Brexiters think will 'just get sorted out', the hardening of the Irish border is right up there at the top of barking-ometer.

The UK has said it wants an "unprecedented solution", avoiding physical checks at the border.

But no agreement has been reached so far on how this can be achieved, given the UK's decision to leave the EU's customs union after Brexit.

The referendum made no mention of leaving the customs union, just the EU.

Part of me hopes this this is a staring contest, and at some moment, someone important will pop up and say “this won’t work, not in a million years, let’s cancel this follly before any more damage is done” and be done with it. However, that’s the fantasist in me (the one that hopes that some eccentric millionaire will give me a large bag of money like they do in the last frame of a strip in The Beano).

The government's bid to extract the UK from EU law in time for Brexit has passed its first Parliamentary test.
MPs backed the EU Withdrawal Bill by 326 to 290 in a late-night vote despite critics saying it represented a "power-grab" by the government.
The bill, which will end the supremacy of EU law in the UK, now moves onto its next Parliamentary stage.
Ministers sought to reassure MPs by considering calls for safeguards over their use of new powers.
Having cleared its second reading hurdle, the bill will now face more attempts to change it with Conservative MPs believed to have tabled new amendments.

THERESA May has won the first big test of her new minority government, gaining support from Labour MPs on the second reading of the EU repeal bill.
The bill will allow EU law to be passed into UK common law, allowing for a smooth transition as Britain makes its way out of the 27 member state bloc.

The bill will now move onto the committee stage before being given royal assent after being passed by 326 votes to 290.

Government wins vote on EU withdrawal bill with majority of 36. Full list of MP's who voted for or against the bill at second reading.

What will happen to all the EN standards? Will we just use the latest BS EN and stop updating?
In my job we use a mix of BS, BS EN, BS EN ISO, DIN, French standards, it's going to be a mess

Yeah, the pro-Brexit lot do seem to think it's possible to negotiable favourable trade deals from a position of weakness.

The irony is, they voted Leave because they hate foreigners having influence over our policies! Buckle up, numpties, it's going to get a whole lot worse.

A thread where we can log news stories and events that are affected or caused by Brexit. I hope this won’t be a recording of our descent into madness.

To kick off:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-37374579" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You may recall that a Polish man was killed in Harlow last month, in an apparent “hate crime” incident.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-37227313" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Elsewhere, a Leeds woman is verbally abused whilst be interviewed by Channel 4. I posted this in the EU Referendum thread earlier.

https://twitter.com/Hayley_Barlow/statu ... 6740255744" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And from the Independent in July:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cr ... 26706.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Feel free to add what you find.

It was made clear to Chelmsford Crown Court at his trial that this sad incident had nothing to do with Brexit or hate crime. In fact, the court heard that Mr Jozwik was drunk and had racially abused a friend of the boy, who retaliated.

Xenophobic abuse is not new, I experienced it over 10 years ago. I’ve also had people rant at me that’s i was taking their jobs ( yeah... ). I’m lucky I pass as British in day to day life.
My friend who is British but looks foreign got told to [LIFTED] off home recently, that’s new but that’s what happens when xenophobia is institutionalised.

Ex-Bank of England Governor urges UK to WALK AWAY from Brexit talks & trade on WTO rules

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/856878 ... -bloomberg

been stating that all along. give 90 days notice then slap WTO on the table and walk away.
i have a feeling thats whats gonna happen at the end of the day and be the final result.

we cant hurry out of the EU fast enough ...