well, he is definitely de—escalating the irish position after, as laura said, simon coveney, his deputy, escalated it a few weeks ago and he sort of suggested that the uk has been doing that privately, diplomatically, with other people around the world as well. now, whether that is true, whether that is a tactic he is deploying to reduce the temperature and actually, the uk has not been doing that, then i also wonder if there will be a bit of blowback from that because david frost and borisjohnson like to look like the hard men in and so if they have got people on their backs going, "hang on, have you dialled down these threats about article 16?" that could cause them a little bit of a domestic political problem. also, ijust think, two other little things that i scribbled down — he were sort ofjoking, but he sort of meant it, please do not make it another christmas eve crisis! and he is a well—known impressionist and he denied that he has been working on a borisjohnson impression! what was interesting as well is that the last few days, i have been talking to people on the uk side ab

well, he is definitely de—escalating the irish position after, as laura said, simon coveney, his deputy, escalated it a few weeks ago and he sort of suggested that the uk has been doing that privately, diplomatically, with other people around the world as well. now, whether that is true, whether that is a tactic he is deploying to reduce the temperature and actually, the uk has not been doing that, then i also wonder if there will be a bit of blowback from that because david frost and borisjohnson like to look like the hard men in this and so if they have got people on their backs going, "hang on, have you dialled down these threats about article 16?" — that could cause them a little bit of a domestic political problem. also, ijust think, two other little things that i scribbled down — he were sort ofjoking, but he sort of meant it, please do not make it another christmas eve crisis! and he is a well—known impressionist and he denied that he has been working on a borisjohnson impression! what was interesting as well is that the last few days, i have been talking to people on the u

coveney, who'5 firing warning shots at the uk government. maybe colum might also look at the comments, the disgraceful comments made by an eu spokesman last night when he said that the eu was prepared for peace, but ready for war. what does that mean? concern, too, from inside the chamber about the words being used and the potential consequences. the burned—out buses, - as i said earlier, and the threat to the bus drivers is absolutely irresponsible and it's reckless. j some of the rhetoric. that we've witnessed, particularly in relation to the protocol, is i completely reckless. it's dangerous, and it often bears no resemblance to the actual - reality that we all face. that eu officials are making these remarks is, to say the least, inflammatory. to do it when what is required is a rational, fully inclusive dialogue that recognises as a starting point that for many the protocol is not working and does not enjoy the support of quite a few of us in our society is progressively poisoning the body politic here. away from storment, this loyali