The cult of Boris Johnson's optimism is all that's left of a Brexit plan | Rafael Behr

The government is playing hardball over the Northern Ireland protocol. But EU patience is fast running out

Everyone in UK politics has been on a Brexit journey, but some have travelled further than others. On the eve of the referendum, David Frost was chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association and unconvinced by arguments for leaving the European single market. Even the best-case outcome can't be as good as what we have now," he wrote in June 2016.

Five years later, Lord Frost is the cabinet minister for making a hard Brexit harder. In that capacity he made a speech on Tuesday rejecting the Northern Ireland protocol of the withdrawal agreement that he was proud to have negotiated two years ago, and proposing a new text instead.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist