{"id":672827,"date":"2026-01-04T07:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T07:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/672827\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T07:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T07:27:14","slug":"sam-mcbride-david-frosts-briefings-on-ireland-and-the-eu-show-he-must-have-known-brexit-would-not-be-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/672827\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam McBride: David Frost\u2019s briefings on Ireland and the EU show he must have known Brexit would not be easy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">Declassified files from 2004 show another side to the diplomat tipped to join Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Brexit negotiator David Frost. Photo: PA\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4910e601-909e-4608-9549-92edf792e104.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Brexit negotiator David Frost. Photo: PA<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">At the height of post-Brexit hostilities between London and Dublin, Boris Johnson\u2019s pugnacious \u201cpoint man\u201d was David Frost. The UK\u2019s chief negotiator was an unconventional figure who embraced unpopularity at home and abroad, revelled in brinkmanship and was willing to use chaos theory to \u2014 he hoped \u2014 give Britain an advantage by adopting hitherto unthinkable stances, such as threatening to break international law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">But among thousands of pages of newly declassified Downing Street files opened at the National Archives in Kew are several that make all of this seem extraordinary. In them, Frost sets out the importance of carefully nurturing strategic partnerships with Dublin and Brussels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Declassified files from 2004 show another side to the diplomat tipped to join Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK Brexit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[5109,802,748,139981,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,384,6410,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-672827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-boris-johnson","9":"tag-brexit","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-david-frost","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-nigel-farage","18":"tag-sam-mcbride","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115835651255858204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}