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This is the key point. Delays at the border, tariffs: all are concerns. But they are just symptoms of taking an axe to the intricate network of rules that underpins all our engagements with the EU27: from trade, to individuals taking holidays, to family law, to extradition ...
Anyone who presents “no deal” as simply being an issue about tariffs and border checks - as no dealers typically do (see eg Minford and @johnredwood, passim) - is simply failing to engage with the full legal implications of no deal.
Those implications extend to every aspect of our national and personal lives where we engage with the EU27 and their citizens - as consumers, as visitors, as expats, as victims of crime, as traders, as family members.
It is not (just) about the economy, stupid.
It’s of course true that we don’t have to be in the EU to have deep and complex legal relationships with our neighbours.
The US and Canada; Australia and NZ: great examples of countries with a complex web of agreements, developed over years, governing the countless ways in which their citizens and businesses interact with each other.
But the key is “developed over years”. You can’t just sort this stuff out in an afternoon, with one sheet of paper.
If we just sever *all* our complex relationships with our neighbours - almost all of which are through the EU - it will take years to rebuild them. And in the meantime there is legal chaos. And legal chaos means real people suffering in all sorts of very real ways. /end
