Welcome to In Conversation, the regular podcast of E-Sharp magazine.

Go to e-sharp.com for free access to all our podcasts to date.

This is Paul Adamson. I'm in conversation with Stephen Fiddler.

Stephen Fiddler is the UK and Brexit editor of the Wall Street Journal,

and before that, for eight years, was the Brussels Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal.

We're going to talk about Brexit, Steve, obviously, but since events are moving so quickly,

I think it's only fair to point out we're recording this at the beginning of the first week in

November, just in case events move on even more rapidly in the days that follow.

Theresa May, as you know, has been saying that the deal, the withdrawal agreement, is 95% done,

and what's left is simply 5%. But how intractable, how difficult is this remaining 5% as far as you're concerned?

Well, obviously the hardest things are left until last and the hardest things are the

things that remain and the things that remain are essentially how to get around the problem

of the Irish border and how to avoid the re-emergence of controls at the Irish border.

And the European Union's solution for that so far would be to, in effect, create a regulatory

and customs border down the Irish Sea, and that's something that Theresa May has ruled out.

So getting around that issue is clearly the major part of the 5% that remains and one of the

most difficult parts. So but Theresa May's sort of counterproposal to the E27 proposal for this border down the

Irish she sees to have a customs union throughout the UK with the EU, not just Northern Ireland,

is that correct?

That seems to be, it's not clear that anybody, any spokesperson of the UK government has admitted,

that is the idea that she has, but that is generally accepted to be the way that it's going.

So to avoid the customs part of the controls in the Irish C, the solution

...