The irritation MN is that the UK appears to be attempting to back track on the agreements it made and signed relating to the French transitional fishing rights and the NI protocol and doing so publically. As for the fishing rights, it seems again the such a small economic contributor to either country is causing outsized angst. The post-Brexit agreement negotiated with the European Union provided that EU fishermen could continue to fish in certain British waters if they obtained a licence. The licence would be granted if they could prove they were fishing there before. Whether you agree or disagree that that should have been included is not relevant.
I don’t know how credible the French boat’s evidence they were fishing there before is and were I to be adjudicating on the UK’s behalf I’d be pretty damned harsh about that ie. your boat better have pretty incontrovertible evidence or you wouldn’t get a liscense. However, we are not seeing that data. Let Jersey/UK state on what basis they have refused liscenses so we can decide if they had reasonable grounds or not.
The NI protocol is a different, more serious, kettle of fish (:D).
North/South trade is booming post brexit. Irish haulage is using direct ferries to France rather than the UK landbridge with traffic at UK ports previously used by Irish hauliers considerably down (one third of what it was). Again, the UK agreed and signed a treaty knowing this would be the effect and appear to trying to back track. In the case of the NI protocol the USA and congress will not look kindly on any threat to peace nor the threat of a hard (economic) border. In this video on twitter Frost confirms the above and at the end of it states: “That’s one reason why we can’t wait very long to solve this problem because things are already happening.”
The protocol is being attacked not because it doesn’t work, but because it DOES – strengthening north-south economic links.