If relations between the three points of the Brexit triangle of Dublin, London and Brussels were dodgy before this week, they have deteriorated further in recent days as the temperature rises over the Northern Ireland protocol. The UK’s Brexit minister David Frost says that Britain “underestimated the effect” of the Northern Ireland protocol. The EU doesn’t realise – or doesn’t care – that the checks on goods entering the North make unionists “feel less British”, says one senior UK official. EU negotiators often refer to Northern Ireland as being in the EU, the British say, with barely concealed irritation. “It’s impossible to overstate the annoyance with the British behaviour on the North,” says one senior Irish official.

Source: The Irish Times June 10, 2021 22:52 UTC