THERE was delay and confusion at the start of the meeting between the EU's chief Brexit negotiator and Stormont's Executive Office Committee.
Although, given delay and confusion have come to characterise both Brexit and Stormont, that was probably par for the course.
On this occasion the issue wasn't backstops and intra-party feuds and petitions of concern but the technology glitches that have become ubiquitous in the virtual meetings of the pandemic age.
European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic's image on the Committee Room 30 monitor flickered from view just as the meeting was called to order.
While Belfast tried to re-establish the video link with Brussels, committee chair Colin McGrath pointed out "normally this is the point that we ask Martina [Anderson] to sing for us, but on this occasion we'll just wait to see if we can get Dr Sefcovic logged in again".
While the Sinn Féin assembly member's crystal clear feed (displaying her motto `No Coffee No Workee') would undoubtedly have held up to the strain of any impromptu a cappella number, a speedy reconnection avoided the danger of triggering a fresh rant from temperamental east Belfast neighbour Van Morrison.
When he did hove onto screen Dr Sefcovic suggested rather wistfully that he wished he could have been there in person - a sentiment no doubt echoed by the MLAs who were presented with a slightly out of focus picture that gave him the appearance of a Minecraft character.
He was welcomed enthusiastically by Mr McGrath, the SDLP representative keen to stress to his VIP guest that "the majority of people [in Northern Ireland] and the majority of people in our assembly didn't want [Brexit]" and the committee before him "best reflects what people in Northern Ireland are thinking".
For his part Dr Sefcovic insisted it was "an honour to be here and I hope that it will also be able to meet in person as soon as the situation will be able to permit that", before asking doubtfully if he could be seen and heard by members.
"We can see and hear you perfectly," Mr McGrath said diplomatically.
In step with the Northern Ireland flag season, the EU VP had not one but two star-circled blue standards behind him as he launched into an upbeat rendition of the greatest hits of the Protocol and why he believes is a sadly under-rated settlement.
Such is the toxicity in the north of the arrangement between the EU and UK government, it has been a long time since even its non-detractors have talked up its positives.
In that context it was almost jarring to hear descriptions of how it offered Northern Ireland a "unique situation, having this ample access to the both markets of the UK and the EU".
His sales pitch for a Swiss-style agreement, rather than the more distant New Zealand model favoured by harder-line Brexiteers, was somewhat hampered by the poor video-link obscuring the detail of the graph of customs checks he kept trying to show the committee,
Dr Sefcovic ended by stressing the need to "do everything from every side to de-dramatise rhetoric and find solutions".
That was met with an implacable response from the unionists on the committee, with both the main parties uniting to sing in harmony from the same hymn sheet.
UUP vice chair John Stewart got the ball rolling by stating flatly he and his party are "fundamentally opposed to the protocol" and demanding to know "how you are hearing this (and) what you are doing to show (this is) being heard?"
Dr Sefcovic insisted it has "full respect of the constitutional arrangements in the UK" and the EU "are your friends and have been always on your side (and) only acted when you requested us to act".
Former DUP MEP Diane Dodds took up the baton of opposition with several pages of prepared arguments which stressed that "no representative of the unionist community gives consent to the Northern Ireland Protocol".
She was cut off by the chair after her largely rhetorical questions reached nine with just two minutes left of the EU official's time and six other members anxious to contribute.
Among them was her party colleague George Robinson who stated bluntly: "We don't need any more honeyed words (it) needs scrapped in its present form."
Not even several more minutes of Dr Sefcovic extolling the economic alchemy which will apparently be created by the protocol in combination with Northern Ireland's "fantastic universities" and "very well-educated workforce" could change the tune.
The DUP's Christopher Stalford assumed the withering tone of a headmaster handing out a detention to a particularly vexatious pupil to inform him (apparently on behalf of all unionists everywhere): "We do not, will not, have not and never will consent to the provisions of the protocol."
After visibly calling on more than two decades of experience in diplomacy to rein in an instinctive retort, Dr Sefcovic thanked him "very much for your very clear position".
He patiently explained - again - "the parameters of Brexit designed in London are actually very tough, very difficult" and insisted the EU has been "looking for that solution which in the end was indeed squaring the circle and we did it in an openhearted way (with) the best possible intention".
Dr Sefcovic promised to "continue our dialogue" and said he hopes to return to the committee in the autumn with many of the issues raised "under the category Problem Solved".
And if he believes that then Boris Johnson has a bridge to Scotland to sell him.
