Hard and soft borders?

Seems clear enough, maybe?  The Guardian reports:

David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has promised there will be no return to any “hard” border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic when the UK leaves the European Union.

On a visit to Belfast on Thursday, Davis vowed there will be “no return to the past” in terms of armed checkpoints and border checks along the UK’s only land frontier with an EU state.

...

Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, Davis made his vow about not returning to the past in terms of armed checkpoints and border checks. He wrote: “We had a common travel area between the UK and the Republic of Ireland many years before either country was a member of the European Union.

“We are clear we do not want a hard border – no return to the past – and no unnecessary barriers to trade. What we will do is deliver a practical solution that will work in everyone’s interests, and I look forward to opening the conversation about how that should operate with my colleagues today.”

I look forward to Mr Davis' explanation of how he intends to prevent the free movement of East Europeans into Ireland and thence - unhindered by border checks - into the UK.

But, as Dr Pangloss might have put it, perhaps all is possible in this best of all possible brave new worlds.  Alternatively, Mr Davis has not quite thought it through ...