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Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, The Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast.

I'm Cindy U and I'm joined by Katie Balls and Isabel Hardman.

So today the UK government met with the EU negotiators to continue the next stage of the Northern Ireland Protocol discussions.

Katie, can you tell us what's been going on in the conversation there?

Because we've not heard much about it recently. The word from Brussels is that an EU legal action over the UK's

alleged breach of the Northern Ireland deal would continue as long as necessary, but they're

going to intensify talks on the issue. Now, in terms of whether a resolution is in sight,

I think as a general, if both sides are

planning to keep talking, that is not a breakdown in talks, not to state obvious. But I think

when it comes to what the UK government wants is ultimately, when it comes to the Northern

Island Protocol, I think that the best way out for Boris Johnson in a way is if the

EU will drop or ease checks in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol. Now, I think the EU

are fairly reluctant to do that, but that the two sides are still talking means there is potentially

a chance for that to happen. I think that one of the issues that Boris Johnson faces is in a way this is really

the most obvious and perhaps one of the only clear ways to slightly ease the situation in terms

of how Brexit is aggravating it because we have a situation where Boris Johnson I think is such

a distrusted figure in Northern Ireland because of his trip to DEP conference.

So he said there'd be no Irish sea border now. You can debate better. It's a full Irish sea border.

But there is clearly more than he promised that is now in existence.

...