Ray Bassett, former Irish diplomat lands on Planet Normal following some of the worst violence in Northern Ireland in decades. As one of the key architects of the Good Friday Agreement, he gives Telegraph columnists Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson the inside track on a turbulent week, and tells Planet Normal why he believes no side has truly stuck to the agreement. Plus Ray shares some disquieting words about the EU's implementation of post-Brexit border checks.

Elsewhere, it's not only the weather that's frosty... Allison and Liam give a particularly cool reception to Boris Johnson’s recent attempts to credit the lockdown - and not the vaccine rollout - with a fall in UK Covid cases. Plus Allison pays a moving tribute to The Duke of Edinburgh ahead of his funeral on Saturday - and another listener scoops up a coveted Planet Normal mug for email of the week.

Allison and Liam will be replying to comments beneath this article on Thursday 15th April from 11am-12pm: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/04/15/uk-ireland-should-strike-bilateral-deal-replace-northern-ireland/ |

Sarah Knapton 'Quarter of Covid deaths not caused by virus, new figures show': https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/13/quarter-covid-deaths-not-caused-virus/ |

Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/allison-pearson/ |

Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |

Listen to Bryony Gordon's Mad World: https://www.playpodca.st/madworld |

Need help subscribing or reviewing? Read more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ |

Email: [email protected] |

For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal |

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.