The most important day in Brexit discussions since yesterday... Barclay meets Barnier and we hopefully find out if the optimistic read-out from Varadkar-Johnson was actually substantive. Big issues around EU and UK positions against the backdrop of time almost out
For the UK side the question is how far Johnson can really move from his so-called 'deal' (proposals unacceptable to EU) without losing the support of his MPs, Cabinet, DUP. If we're talking GB-NI checks with cross-community NI consent that's quite a move
For the EU if the principle is going to be Northern Ireland derogations from various rules and UK administration of the system, questions of trust in the UK and what guarantees they would want to see in place
And for both sides you only have a few days until the Council decides next steps for the 27 remaining Member States, and the UK's Benn Act kicks in straight after. Tricky to get the complex detail in place, adding in ratifications and Oct 31 departure with deal a big problem
EU deals are always done at the last minute we hear, but that's in some ways a tautology. The last negotiating sessions iron out the last issues, but we feel someway short of that - there are significant numbers of questions on both sides right now
All that is just to put some realism into expectations of the day. There's an awful lot of skill needed on both sides to turn optimism to delivery. And it can be many years in a negotiation between identifying the landing zone and actually getting there.
We don't know if a common landing zone has in fact been agreed. But the thought it might have been drives the optimism. Let's see if that holds through the day /end
PS Now to try to make some sense on air of this for BBC Radio Scotland with @DmitryOpines, who will hopefully have some bizarre analogy ready
