In news that will surprise precisely no-one following recent reports about the timeline for delivering the SMART Freight System, it won’t be ready for January 1st.
[Update: This BBC News article reports that the government claims that beta software means that it is fully operational. This is probably true in the world of Dominic Cummings that worships at the feet of the tech giants. Meanwhile, us more operational folk realise ‘alpha’ is software reading for a bit of internal testing, and ‘beta’ means a bit more widespread testing, it is not production-ready.]
Meanwhile, as the Internal Markets Bill continues in committee, there are rumours that Boris Johnson has proposed a deal that will allow Tory rebels to support the bill, relating to the amendment proposed by Sir Bob Neill (the amendment was there will be a parliamentary vote before it is triggered, the deal apparently promises ‘extra parliamentary oversight’), but not changing what the UK would do in that event. As has been pointed out, this puts Tory party unity above making progress with the EU, as nothing has changed about the UK ultimately proposing to break international law.
Answering to the Liaison Committee, the Prime Minister said that the UK may put tariffs on imports from the EU in the event of no-deal, which means they’d need to apply to all imports. Far removed from the tariff-free trade we were promised by the Brexiters.
In news that’s a little more amusing, parliament voted through a Labour amendment to the Fisheries Bill because it has mistakenly been labelled as a Conservative amendment. Good to know they’re paying attention to the content rather than just whose affiliation is at the top, eh?