The Irish Government has published a document this afternoon on the latest state of their Brexit planning. If there is no deal, they say that various checks on UK imports will be necessary “to preserve Ireland’s full participation in the Single Market and Customs Union”, but – surprise, surprise – these checks don’t need to happen at the border itself. Confirming what everybody knew at the very start of the negotiations before the issue was deliberately blown out of all proportion…

Gives Ireland and the EU a pretty simple choice: agree a deal with these sorts of alternative arrangements in place of the backstop – or have no deal and have to put the arrangements in place anyway, with no cash from the UK and all the other complications it will bring. Not exactly a tricky decision…