Oh dear, I find myself uncomfortably closer to Mr Redwood than I do to post 2177. Whilst the risks and stakes are high in a "no deal" March 2019 scenario (including, as a knock-on, to April 2019 Easter tourist traffic), I do believe that trade from the EU is do-able given a healthy dose of UK realism. If it proves otherwise, then I think we have Westminster, Whitehall and the press to blame. We need the first two to ask transport practitioners what is possible on individual routes and the third to understand that 'taking back control of our borders' means deciding what controls we need and where - rather than this crazy island mentality of controls AT the border. We start from a position of EU produce and products being regulatorily aligned with us - what isn't going to jump off the lorry and kill us can be inspected on a risk-assessed basis inland, as it is now.
Instead I read some of today's sensationalist headlines
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-44919563 and reach for the gin.
We need to avoid modal shift to unaccompanied traffic, to accept that chilled/refrigerated food is not perishable, to adopt route-specific procedures, to put our nation before ideology, personal advancement or selling papers, and to acknowledge that there will be civil unrest (again) surrounding outbound traffic. In the jargon, inbound processes should be based on CT, FLIC, CFSP and VAT PAS pending any elegant 'Chequers' methodology.
Pragmatism in the immediate term, idealism in the longer term. Cheers!