It’s one hundred days to the end of the Brexit transition period and time is running out for a UK-EU trade deal worthy of the name. 

Any draft agreement between the two sides has to be concluded by midnight on October 15 so that it can be formally endorsed by the European Council and the British Government. Two weeks after that, the final shutters come down and the deal, if there is one, will be sent for final ratification to Westminster and the European Parliament. 

And that will be that. On January 1, the good ship Royal Sovereign will cast off from Europe for the last time and begin its long and uncertain journey across the world’s oceans in search of whatever it is out there that Brexiters believe has been denied to them for the last 47 years.
Â