This is a pretty stunning paragraph in the EU's letter to Michael Gove. It effectively claims the U.K. is not enforcing the Northern Ireland Protocol 1/ 
And the UK request to extend grace periods for trade? It gets a hard knockback. Essentially EU says: this is what you signed up to, so do it 2/
Big question for the UK now - what does it do? Johnson has threatened activate Article 16 of the protocol - which allows you to suspend parts of it - if the trade issues weren't resolved. But will he actually follow through... 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
And worth remembering Article 16 has lots of caveats attached, as well explained by @AntonSpisak here 4/
https://twitter.com/AntonSpisak/status/1357134493866426369
So the Brexit drama rumbles on... I for one am very much here for the whole `diplomacy via sincere-sounding but actually sassy and snarky letter' - long may it continue ends/ ec.europa.eu/info/sites/inf…
The Cabinet Office has just issued this statement: “It is disappointing that the Commission has failed to acknowledge the shock and anger felt right across the community in Northern Ireland from its decision to trigger Article 16, and the need to take urgent steps...
to restore confidence as a result. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will underline the need for such action and political leadership in this regard when meeting with Vice-President Sefcovic in London tomorrow evening.''
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