It’s all a false flag, man.
They intended on cocking it all up so that May and her evil globalist cronies can say “Well, we tried, but it got all cocked up. Guess we can’t Brexit now” and then, because the EU is also an evil globalist, the EU can say “But now you have to open your borders to all these brown people” and May can say “Well, there’s nothing we can do because its all cocked up, yeah?” and that’s what they wanted all along.
‘looking for a very proximate relationship with the EU’ what? like the one we have currently?
Indeed. But insulting my fellow voters isn’t going to help them realise that they were misled…
Well, not everyone in the UK goes to Eton.
As others have said, it’s a consequence. Fun fact - many of those who want to leave are of the small government persuasion.
We now have two entirely new departments to handle aspects of leaving, both of which will be around for at least a decade. Isn’t it lucky that government departments are free to the taxpayer? 
Thanks. Likewise for yourself. We have to speak out, act up and get involved! Good luck to us all! 
Raab hopes to find a “bespoke arrangement” which “recognizes the peculiar, frankly, geographic economic entity that is the United Kingdom.”
This seems to have been the thinking throughout the Brexit process: that bespoke deals can be brokered with individual countries in a way that will leave the UK just as well off outside of the EU as it was when it was in the EU. From the outside looking in, this doesn’t seem to have been a very successful strategy so far.
It’s almost like giving non-member states the same preferential treatment as member states would defeat the whole point of an economic union and therefore none of the member states want to do it.
Barely even a joke:
It’s amazing to watch Brexiteers try to cope with the evidence that this was a really, really bad idea. I see some announcement that the government is failing to secure a deal on some issue and that the consequences will be “X.” The leavers then decry it as fear mongering, because “of course ‘X’ won’t happen.” Remainers then point out the various agreements and treaties that allow the current system to function, that will be null and void in the case of Brexit. The Brexiteers then change tack and claim that a “no deal” situation means that there will be a deal that just hasn’t happened yet (despite the fact that there isn’t even time to negotiate one)…
I shake my head in disbelief when Trump says something like that, but from someone in the EU, that’s another level of stupid entirely…
One of the panelists on BBC’s News Quiz had a great joke about this.
“There are parts in Ireland where the border runs down the middle of the road. You have to cross the border just to overtake someone. Get your passport out Mary, I’m going to burn this fellow on the inside!”
I have no idea if that’s actually true, but I laughed. (And the Irish border is undoubtedly a huge problem and I have yet to hear anyone float any sort of reasonable solution).
Also, I think he was the first person I heard who called it the British Border problem. Because it is. We (yes, I am British) created the problem, and we’ve spent most of the past few centuries desperately pretending that it’s nothing to do with us.
Mind you, this was our modus operandi pretty much everywhere in the world, so I guess it’s only fair that our local implementation should be the one that really comes back to bite us.
A natural consecuence of voting for a platform and a party that included “people are sick of listening to experts” as a idea.
Well, now you are ruled by the amateurs.
The solution may be to keep Scotland and Northern Ireland in the EU, since they voted against Brexit, and to rebuild Hadrian’s Wall, but pointed the other way.
But, but - the strategic haggis reserve!
…apart from the obvious, which is The Party of Rich Twits stop shorting the UK for everything they can grab, and leave the border (and everything else) as it was.
He seems to think the Channel Tunnel is just a hole with lot of foreigners and rabid foxes at the other end, and we don’t need it as Britain is a Big Country and doesn’t have to trade with anyone. But if you spend your time talking with UKIP people and Daily Mail readers, this is what you say. And sometimes the wrong soundbite comes out in a serious interview. And serve him jolly well right, too.
Nice to see the big ‘Mister Brexit’, Trump, is having a bad time also. Keep it up, everyone!
I’m not entirely sure about down the middle of the road, but that particular border is one of the messier ones, it runs right through many towns and villages and is a general nightmare to control (not that anyone has tried since the Belfast accords).
Geography! How the fuck does that work?
(Hattip ICP)
I’m fine with that, as I live just the right side of it. Folks in Gateshead might not be too pleased with it, mind. Also, the train station will need border guards at the entrance.
I think a better analogy might be the occasional calls for Calexit- “we’re the Xth largest economy in the world” or “good riddance to all those liberals” without realizing yeah, we’re prosperous in large part because we’re all part of a 50 state continent-spanning single market free trade zone that everyone benefits from. Not that there might not be legit reasons for states splitting apart, but doing so without at least acknowledging that you’re maiming the goose that lays the golden egg is inexcusably irresponsible.
Whilst I’d heard of Calexit, it’s only in general hypothetical terms. I had no idea it was a (serious? significant?) political movement. It’s on the same mental shelf for me as “Texas might leave because of oil and stubbornness”. 
The Great North Run might be delayed a bit with 50,000 runners needing passport checks along the route.
Oh, it’s certainly much more hypothetical. But it’s similar along the lines of “people who bluster about it tend not to have really thought it through”.
