So, the thing that’s playing on my mind:

If UK really wanted to blow up talks it would have proposed legislation to scrap tests on products of animal origin entering Northern Ireland from GB; import/export declarations for GB goods being shipped to NI; etc.

But it didn’t.

The issues UK has chosen to focus on:

Scrapping exit summary declarations on goods sent from NI to GB b’cos Boris promised something Protocol doesn’t offer. But does EU really care about this in grand scheme of things? Probably not.

State aids. Here UK is trying to ensure EU state aid rules only apply in Northern Ireland, not in the rest of the UK.

EU definitely cares about this - but GB rules could/should be dealt with via FTA.

But man, this is a ridiculously risky approach.

Entirely relies on the EU deciding to be the grown up in the room.