Analysis: there may have been no breakthrough but Lord Frost’s calm outlook suggests all is not lost
There wasn’t a breakthrough but neither was there a breakdown, is how Lord Frost, the government’s Brexit minister, summarised the talks about Northern Ireland with his European Commission counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, and other EU representatives on Wednesday.
Perhaps not the most positive of readouts but when Frost, the enfant terrible of last year’s troubled trade talks, is involved, such a place of calm is not to be sniffed at. And for all the fire and fury, including hyperbolic headlines of sausage trade wars, there are also signs, albeit rather small, of compromises in the making.