Boris Johnson visited Northern Ireland as a Prime Minister forced to muddle through the fallout of a Brexit mess of his own making.
This is the man who negotiated and signed up to the Northern Ireland Protocol which has snowballed into the DUP refusing to restore devolved government.
He agreed the deal to "get Brexit done", only a year after telling a DUP conference that an Irish Sea trade border would be "damaging the fabric of the Union".
Read more: Unilateral move by UK on protocol could undermine peace process, Coveney warns
There were no signs of contrition for the consequences of his actions in a lengthy op-ed article he published ahead of his trip.
He said the Protocol was agreed in "good faith", contradicting his former chief adviser Dominic Cummings who claimed the UK government had always planned to "ditch the bits we didn't like".
He portrayed any problems with Irish Sea trade checks as being the result of other factors, rather than the Protocol or the pursuit of Brexit itself.
The Protocol was "designed before a global pandemic and a European war which has created a cost-of-living crisis on a scale not seen for half a century", he argued.
In his article Mr Johnson also recommitted to bringing forward Irish language legislation and commissioning abortion services in Northern Ireland, but gave no timeline for the long-delayed pledges.
Superseding the Stormont House Agreement, he said the government would press ahead with its reworked plans for a conditional amnesty on Troubles prosecutions.
Years of broken promises mean Northern Ireland parties simply have no trust in this Prime Minister.
It is little wonder therefore that Mr Johnson's much-hyped visit in a bid to restore Stormont power-sharing did not result in a breakthrough.
His private talks with the five main parties in Hillsborough Castle mainly delivered a media scrum and protests at the gates.
Mr Johnson called for "all of the local parties to get back to Stormont" following the Assembly election, ignoring the fact that the only party blocking a return to power-sharing is the DUP.
He made no overtures towards Stormont reform following a surge in support for the constitutionally unaligned Alliance Party, instead arguing that the election results show the basis for power-sharing has been "enhanced".
Unionist parties railing against the Protocol want to see not just words, but action from the Prime Minister.
It could be as early as Tuesday that the UK government publishes the outline of plans to allow ministers in London to unilaterally remove parts of the post-Brexit deal.
But any new legislation could take months to enact and even then, ministers may not use their newly bestowed powers.
Many suspect these proposals could be a negotiating ploy in a bid to win concessions from the European Union, with Number 10 having no intention of diverging further from the Protocol without mutual agreement.
Mr Johnson's article speaks of a desire to change the Protocol rather than scrap it entirely, with issues such as VAT and medicines being at the forefront of concerns.
He also makes no reference to triggering Article 16 of the Protocol to override parts of the deal - a warning that has previously wielded by the British government.
If the Prime Minister does act, he runs the risk a trade war with the European Union during a cost-of-living crisis.
He risks straining relations further with the Irish government and friction with the US, where political leaders have previously warned against resiling from the Protocol.
The Conservative leader must also navigate his own party amid reports that senior cabinet figures are split on whether to take a harder line and tear up the Irish Sea trade deal.
And in the end, will whatever the Prime Minister decides be enough of a fig leaf to allow the DUP to drop its protest and return to power-sharing?
All of these factors create the potential for Stormont's post-election limbo to continue unresolved for many months to come.
Read more: Unilateral move by UK on protocol could undermine peace process, Coveney warns
Read more: Boris Johnson to hold talks in bid to break Stormont deadlock
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