Is the government heading for a new confrontation with the EU over Northern Ireland?
Only a week after a truce in the sausage war between the UK and EU, hostilities have resumed over the Northern Ireland protocol, which created a trade border in the Irish Sea. Brussels had hoped the two sides would use the three-month grace period, which will allow chilled meats from Great Britain to be sold in Northern Ireland until 30 September, to thrash out a lasting settlement to the crisis. But David Frost, the Brexit minister, has now launched another round of megaphone diplomacy by warning the EU the government will set out a new approach before parliament begins its summer break on 22 July. Although he denied setting a deadline, he was in effect issuing an ultimatum: if the EU does not come up with concessions to the UKs liking within two weeks, Boris Johnson might deploy the nuclear option of invoking Article 16 of the protocol to suspend parts of it.