You want to know what the real bad news is here?

It's not that there are queues for miles just because the French customs authorities are "trialling post-Brexit boarding systems".

It's that we aren't.

/1 https://www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/news/brexit-trial-creates-lorry-queue-at-eurotunnel-237992/

The French system is ready and has been tested before.

The French customs hired and trained new customs officials (and vets for SPS checks).

They had this ready since last year. They are testing it to be sure it works. And it has that kind of an impact on our side.

/2

Now let's think about what's happening on our side: systems not ready, information not fully there, hauliers frustrated, Gov panicking.

No tests, no pilots.

/3

The IT systems we'll be using are currently being tested as in to see whether they actually work, whether they have all the functionality.

/4

What the French are doing is not testing the system - they've done that over a years ago. They know it works.

They are doing trial runs of the actual border processes and procedures they will need to do from 1 Jan- with all parties involved.

/5

Are you starting to see the difference? Just exactly how far behind we are?

And no, the customs simplifications introduced by Gov, while extremely helpful and needed, won't close that gap.

/6

Come Jan UK companies, hauliers, customs and logistics specialists will find themselves in a new environment, unprepared, with processes and procedures untested and written literally days before - and that's if we don't have a deal.

/7

If we have a deal - we'll all be spending our Christmas reading through 1,500 pages trying to understand what is and what isn't included before finally coming to the conclusion that it doesn't make things any simpler.

/8

So no, the queues on M20 today really aren't what we should be worried about.

/end