These are the sorts of questions I would be asking about the third paragraph. https://twitter.com/tomtugendhat/status/1252679936768344070

See

1. What was “the initial communication problem”? Who failed to communicate with whom? And what did that failure consist of (a communication not sent, not seen, or misinterpreted)?

2. Who is “the UK”? The UK mission in Brussels? A Whitehall Department? Ministers? Downing St?

3. What is meant by “not ... in time”? How far out of time was it (an hour? Two weeks?)

4. What steps, if any, were taken to see if the missed deadline could be waived?

5. The third sentence carefully fails to specify by what time it is talking about. By the time “the UK” (see Q2) received the message? By the time it was decided to find out if anything could be done to join late (which might have been several days later, after much faffing)?

I could go on but it’s getting late ...