Will it be a deal or no deal or a delayed deal? We are at the point in the long-running saga of Brexit that football commentators characterise as the business end of the match.

Boris Johnson is expected to flesh out the proposals he has submitted to the EU, late and with precious little time to secure an acceptable agreement on the terms of the UK's departure.

EU negotiations have a habit of running right up to the wire and it would be surprising if the shuttle diplomacy between London and Brussels doesn't take us right up to October 31.

It is not just Brussels that the government has to persuade but the Prime Minister will also need to square off the polarized factions within his own party on a deal.

With no clear working majority, the numbers are against him; compromise might be needed on an issue where the politicians have proved particularly uncompromising.

One of the more interesting passages in his conference speech was when he declared that he loved Europe - a clear signal that he cannot afford to alienate that wing of the party.

Voters tend to be turned off by the language of Brussels and will look for clarity where clarity may not exist.

Still at least some proposals are on the table, which is progress of a kind.

And there are encouraging signs of support from arch Euro-sceptics like the South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay.

Meanwhile closer to home we can expect to hear more about the contingency plans being revised to deal with the consequences of a no-deal Brexit.

The various authorities in Kent putting together these plans are sometimes caught between a rock and a hard place: they have to set out all possible ramifications, however remote and however sensitive.

Schools for example have been alerted to a range of issues that Brexit might bring, among them the possibility that there may be more migrant children needing places and support.

Will it happen? Not necessarily but imagine the outcry if it does and no-one had prepared for it.

On balance it is far better these things are in the public domain than kept secret.

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