are compliant with the single market rules, potentially heading anywhere near the single market. that is the foundation on which the protocol is based, so for the eu to give that up would be quite a big deal. in terms of the response by the eu today, i suspect this will not come as far as they are concerned, count as the unilateral action from the uk that rips up the protocol that brussels fears. i think liz truss saying let s carry on negotiating and we will have this insurance policy for the uk domestically, i don t think that goes quite far enough for this to blow up the talks today, so i think we will be in a place where the two sides are continuing to negotiate for several months yet. we re joined now by our correspondent charlotte gallagher at stormont. that is where the northern ireland assembly should sit if it was functioning, but it s not. so, there was a visit yesterday by boris