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 village.

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

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

And I'm Colombeau-Mungain, RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor in Dublin.

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

This week, as the world fixates on Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia, Brexit has been quietly creeping towards the end game.

Here at Brexit Republic, we've managed to bring the two stories together,

so we'll be hearing from Donald Trump's Northern Ireland Envoy, who had a remarkably candid chat this week on Brexit, on his future, on Trump's future, and the strange tale of Simon

Coveney and whether the EU would stop British planes from flying.

But as voters went to the polls in the US or indeed mailed their ballots, things were not going

so well in Brexit land. Both sides had been intensifying negotiations with a week of talks in

London and there were signs of progress. But then when negotiators arrived back in Brussels

last week, the mood changed.

We'll discuss what went wrong and whether or not there is a fatal gap with just a week to 10

days remaining. So Tony, for the week for the episode that's in it, Mick Mulvaney, President Trump's

special envoy on Northern Ireland speaking at the Institute of International

and European Affairs by Zoom call this week.

...