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. Hello. 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'Mongyne, RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor in Dublin.

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

This week, the Northern Ireland Protocol is firmly in the spotlight, as London, Brussels, Dublin and Washington all square up over the UK's plans to override the protocol. As expected, the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced

in the House of Commons that the UK would introduce legislation in order, as she put it,

to restore the balance of the Good Friday Agreement and to ensure that all parties could

return to the Northern Ireland Executive. However, there's been Fury in Dublin and Brussels,

as officials say London is putting a gun to the EU's head in order to force an entirely new protocol and duplicate the DUP and Boris Johnson's own Eurosceptic backbenchers.

And the signals so far are that the EU will not budge with senior figures in Washington like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Richie Neal both weighing in.

We'll analyse how we got to this point, what the UK is asking for, and what the EU is likely to give.

But first let's start with today. Thyshec Michal Martin went to Belfast to meet with business leaders and political leaders as well.

Here's what he had to say on Good Morning Ulster earlier

about what he regards are the shifting sands of the British negotiating position. What really worries me

is this degree to which the gold posts keep on shifting that one can never say that if we resolve

...