BoJo is the reason Brexit hasn't been completed

Brexit hasn't been completed because it is fundamentally unimplementable and half of everybody said so four years ago.

Why is it "fundamentally unimplementable"?

Because the changes people were demanding wouldn't actually be changed under WTO rules or Switzerland rules, or even just modern standards of trading. And people were saying right from the start that where the Irish border fits into it was going to be a bigger question than 2016 gave it credit for.

If this were the 1890's still, it would be one thing, but it's not. Markets are global now and that's all there is to it, and every business worth hosting is going to be wanting access to the European market - the question is, can they do it through the UK, or do they have to find a new host nation where they can?

This was never going to work and a lot of people said so from day one.

I really don't know a great deal about this situation. It just seems to me, with my admitted lack of knowledge on the subject, that it should be fundamentally doable. They existed before the EU and they maintained their own currency. Thanks for the reply and the info.

Of course they did - but they still traded with Europe and existed in the international community. They still had rules to play by that had to be worked out very carefully; when they didn't, we got the Opium Wars, or even the Declaration of Independence can be considered a consequence of thinking a country can just do what it wants when it wants.

And if Britain doesn't want to play by EU rules, the question becomes what rules *do* they play by. And as I say, the choices are things like WTO rules, Switzerland-plus rules, or Euro-sphere rules where Britain gets treated like they're in close proximity to the EU as though they're Israel or Turkey. And none of those options throw out immigrants. None of those options bring trade dispute arbitrations to exclusive UK jurisdictions. Most of those options require putting up a comprehensive border with Ireland where right now it's very casual - and that's a lot of money and risks a renewed conflict with Ireland. And none of them guarantee to British corporations that they'll get a better deal after Brexit than before Brexit.

What Boris Johnson was promising was unachievable. What pro-Brexit voters were asking for was unachievable. And lo and behold, two Prime Ministers have yet to achieve it. Go figure.

And it is a massively technical subject - we couldn't POSSIBLY describe it properly in comment boxes like this - but that's exactly why putting a technical decision to a public vote with poor information (on both sides!) was a mistake.