But the long hue and cry. . . has led now, seven years later, to Northern Ireland in many ways remaining part of the EU.
Boris -- in a word -- was a blustering. . . buffoon, selling much the same tariff shineola (in different bottles, to be sure), as Tangerine was -- over here. So it goes -- but now, in fits and starts. . . it ends, more or less. Here's the latest, from the Beeb:
. . ."Let's hope this is one of the last great rollercoaster moments of Brexit."
So said one government figure to me, anticipating an important moment today - but worldly enough to realise it's not necessarily the end of the story.
These negotiations, between the government and Brussels, the government and Conservative backbenchers, and the government and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), have resembled diplomatic Jenga - wobbly bricks here, there and everywhere.
One element has been all but done for a while, and, we expect, to be sorted today - the deal between London and Brussels. . . .
There is still the talks between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Among the things they will talk about, I'm told, is dealing with what some in London regard as a "democratic deficit" for Northern Ireland -- that it needs more of a say about future changes in EU rules that will have an impact there.
But let's be clear: the European Commission president would not be coming here unless it was sorted. . . .
Now you know. Smiling on a soggy but warmish Monday morning here. . . onward. Grin.
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