09:24

A distinct lack of bombastic rhetoric on Brexit in Theresa May’s speech was welcomed in Brussels. But her strident rejection of the EU suggestion that Northern Ireland should in effect stay in the customs union to avoid a hard border disappointed the more optimistic diplomats in the Belgian capital.

There just doesn’t seem to be any fudge open on the issue of avoiding a hard border. Some EU diplomats had perhaps naively hoped there might be a little movement on the issue. Some engagement with the notion that keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs area isn’t all that dramatic. A “rational discussion”, one called it. But the prime minister framed the issue as a constitutional one again.

With just over two weeks to go until the “moment of truth” EU leaders summit, May said in her speech there were “better days ahead”. Not imminently, by all accounts. “Popcorn time”, added one cynical eurocrat.