And the Irish government knows this.  But it isn't brinkmanship when you don't have a choice. This is the only time the Irish government will have any leverage in the whole process. Varadker can't afford to be outflanked by Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail on this or his government is history.

Once the second phase of negotiations on trade and transition begins, it is the larger countries and economic players who will be calling the shots and nobody is under any illusions that Irish interests and concerns will have much influence.

The Irish government is fighting hard not to become isolated in Europe on this so it will be interesting to see if the UK diplomatic offensive has been effective in disrupting the common front the EU27 have heretofore shown.

But rather than actually progressing the negotiations in Brussels the UK has been focused on a wider diplomatic offensive with May, Johnson and Davies spending a lot of time schmoozing EU national leaders and emphasising their common bilateral interests.

In footballing terms this is known as playing the man rather than the ball. I await the success or otherwise of this strategy with interest... Merkel and Macron remain key but may have other fish to fry...

Index of Frank's Diaries