Nope. Not too cynical at all.
The UK is probably feeling it has the greatest leverage (+ political goodwill) it’s enjoyed for some time.
Imagine the shit we’d have tried to pull had we actually won Eurovision.
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I find it a little bit naive to think that the EU hasn’t prepared for this possible scenario long ago. A few more or fewer sanctions are probably no longer important anyway. 
Imo they probably already have something up their sleeve for that.
What, UK winning Eurovision?
France and Germany are in a bizarre and unexpected position, and by extension so is Ireland. The EU unity in dealing with the Brexit question is simply gone, because the premise was French and German leadership that has more or less been abdicated in the face of the Ukraine crisis. Putin’s main shill in Europe is a former German chancellor, and Macron cannot make contact with Russia without rumours breaking out that he has offered some sort of face-saving concessions.
As dire as the UK’s refugee policy for Ukraine has been, that really doesn’t matter much to the eastern EU members, compared to real leadership on military aid. Sanctions were slow arriving but are real. Germany has refused to build the capacity needed to defend itself for a generation, and France has always deliberately kept a distance from full NATO integration. Now, both of those matter. Much of the EU now really is putting Avenue Leopold III ahead of de la Loi. Sweden and Finland are entering a period of real potential peril, against which Irish neutrality and the concern for sausages crossing the border are both about equally irrelevant.
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I am referring purely to the Ireland protocol and everything related to it. There really is a strong consensus on that.
we’ll see what happens then
Edit
My suspicion is very much that that consensus will not hold if really tested in this moment. Dublin appears to be quite aware of that.
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About what I expected - bigger fish to fry, no decision on a response, etc. A year ago, I think this would have escalated dramatically, now the instruction is probably just be clear that the EU is not accepting it.
Hence my comment on it being a potentially cynical take.
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It’s also doublespeak. EU: We’re not going to change the protocol but we’re prepared to negotiate.
Well, the UK want to negotiate the movement of goods with parameters more suited to what is happening on the ground. This is no longer some theoretical paper exercise, it now has real life data to feed back into improving upon the whole regulatory environment. Seriously, it’s insane to think that what was agreed in writing when everything was an unknown should not be subject to review and adjustment once the realities can be better understood. This is a classic case of eu bureaucratic officiousness and a determination not to give ground hindering actual mutually beneficial progress.
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False syllogisms abound too.
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My understanding is this has been allowed for in the protocol. What’s winding the EU up is the constant tough guy bull crap served up by a government posturing to its hard right wing support and being surprised that this has taken a step towards a united Ireland.
At the end of the day the UK signed up to a deal that put a border in the Irish sea and immediately decided to renege on it as if it was all part of a plan. Which it was and much was known. I don’t blame the EU for dragging their heels here. Let the UK trash its reputation as a trustworthy nation to deal with and see how that goes.
The EU doesn’t need Truss’ cheese and apples or Boris kippers.
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Something’s rotten in the halls of Westminster…
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So, therefore, counter to the express provisions of the protocol.
It’s been putrid for years.
Yeah; it’s called the Conservative Party.
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This is a Times article about the government rejecting the requiring of water companies to measure the sewage that they pollute the rivers with.
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By proportion Labour MPs have been convicted in far greater numbers. It’s politicians generally, not ideology.
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Generally, or for sexual assault?
Disgusting.
Apparently it would be too costly to comply? Maybe they shouldn’t be operating then…
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