I'm actually rather impressed by the EU performance in this. The strategic idea of Brexit was, to leverage the better geostrategic position of Britain compared to Ireland to make bilateral trade deals. And frankly, four years ago I would have thought that should work at least kinda Ok-ish. However Junker then did reaffirm European solidarity with the Irish at every opportunity.

Now, there are of course three reasons, why the UK will not get a good trade deal, first they don't have leverage, second they told the EU that they hate the EU, which combined with one is of course sound negotiating tactics. And last, the EU would rather like to keep Scotland.