In November 2018, the UK's then Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, admitted he had not known how reliant the UK was on Dover for trade with Europe. Two years on, that lack of basic knowledge is about to bite as the nation struggles with the insurmountable problems of creating a workable customs systems to cope with its freight bottlenecks.
The National Audit Office has said it is “likely that widespread disruption will occur from 1 January 2021" at British borders, in large part because computer systems being built to handle new customs checks and documentation are not ready, months after they were due to have been set up.
