Ireland have once again confirmed that they have no plans to erect a hard border on the island of Ireland even if there is no Brexit deal. The Irish Government published their contingency planning for no deal yesterday, with Foreign Minister Simon Coveney confirming that Ireland has no plans to build a hard border in the event of no deal. The backstop is spurious – there is not going to be a hard border whatever happens…

What the Irish Government has been doing as part of its contingency plans – and what the UK has not to any significant degree – is buying up land around their ports in order to have the space to build new infrastructure should it be required. Change Britain’s Ross Thomson makes the point that the UK Government must start “acting responsibly” by making the “necessary preparations including at our ports”. Regardless of whether there is a deal or not now, the Government will inevitably need some extra land at ports if it ever plans to leave the customs union…

France has been buying up land near its ports as well, while Ireland, France and the Netherlands are all well into the process of recruiting extra customs officers. The UK should be miles ahead of its EU neighbours in preparing for no deal, yet in many areas it finds itself behind. Government Departments and the Treasury are still playing the blame game about why preparations haven’t happened sooner. Remainer attempts to stop the preparations outright are beyond daft. The bottom line is that the UK government has a paramount responsibility to implement no deal preparations at full speed now, whatever the politics of the situation…

UPDATE: An Irish Government Minister said this morning that Ireland was “working towards” increased checks at Irish ports and airports in order to “satisfy single market requirements” in a no deal scenario. For over a year Brexiteers have been dismissed for saying checks away from the land border would work, now it appears to be Irish Government policy…