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.

I'm Sean Whelan, RTE's correspondent in London. And I'm Colom Ongown, RTE's Deputy

Foreign Editor in Dublin. Each week, Brexit Republic assesses all the latest Brexit developments

in Brussels, London and Dublin. And in Belfast, this week hot off the press, the DUP has a new

leader. By a narrow margin, Edwin Putz defeated Geoffrey Donaldson to take over the mantle from Arlene Foster.

We'll hear from RTE's Northern Editor, Vincent Kearney, on what this means for Northern Ireland.

And for the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is still the target of trenchant opposition from unionists

and the subject of ever deeper technical talks between the EU and UK officials.

In the week that Brexit Minister David Frost described the protocol as possibly not sustainable,

we'll assess what the next few months hold.

And as Taoiseach Mikhail Martin and Boris Johnson meet in Chequers,

what are the chances of a reset in Anglo-Irish relations,

given the bruising experience of the Brexit years and this week's inquest into the Bally Murphy

killings in 1971? We'll also look at the prospect of another Scottish independence referendum

...