But that is not how it was sold or told.

Quite. I did spend around five minutes looking for any occasion when any of the Brexit supporters who are here or are no longer with us said there would be such disruption, but really it is not worth the effort; far too many posts to plough through.

From memory, all I can recall from before, say, the Dec 2019 election is an agreement there may be some short term disruption. Not 'will be', mind, but 'may be'. Also that this would last for an unspecified 'short term'. I mention that because charges due to customs fees are not short term under any sensible definition: they will be retained unless there are specific negotiations to eliminate that: setting up something like a single market, for instance.