In all areas, the UK continues to backtrack.

The European Union argues that we should be subject to rules of the club that we have left.

The precondition is the level playing field.

We can deliver a real Brexit that achieves our objectives.

But if there is not a deal, we still need the Irish Protocol or the Northern Irish Protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain. protocol or the Northern Irish protocol fully implemented.

I'm going to miss being the pantomime villain.

Hello and welcome to Brexit Republic, RTE's podcast on Brexit.

I'm Tony Connolly, RTE's Europe editor in Brussels.

And I'm Colom O'Mongone, RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor in Dublin.

Each week, Brexit Republic assesses all the latest Brexit developments in Brussels, London and in Dublin.

When Brexit and COVID collide, we look back at the turbulent events of the past seven days,

looking at how and why the European Commission, when presented with a nut,

reached for the sledgehammer of Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol. What were the politics of the EU's vaccine strategy

that led to that moment and how did Dublin, London and Belfast react to the extraordinary moment last

Friday when the news broke? We'll assess what happened next and how the Northern Ireland Protocol

is once again a battlefield

between London and Brussels

with the Irish government caught in the crossfire.

And as reaction to the protocol

takes on a sinister edge

with intimidation at Lairn and Belfast ports

...