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

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

I'm Sean Wheeler, RTE's correspondent in London. And I'm Colom O'Mongown,

RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor in Dublin. Each week, Brexit Republic brings you all the latest

developments from London, Brussels and Dublin. Counting down the hours, over four and a half

years since the Brexit referendum, we should find out in the coming days what Britain has left

the EU for. We'll take you through the drama

of this week. What's at stake in the final hardball trade-offs over fisheries and the level playing

field? And we look at why some capitals led by France got into some off-the-ball incidents with

their chief negotiator at the 11th hour and why some are channeling their best trees in May and suggesting that no deal is better than a bad deal.

But first, to you, Sean, at 25 to 8 on Friday evening, we had some news in the last 10 minutes from David Frost and Michel Barnier issuing a joint statement, which I suppose is positive news that they could agree on that, at least.

What did they say?

Well, it's nothing to do with ordering more pizzas.

What they're saying is they're pausing the talks.

Let me just read it out the whole thing for you.

After one week of intense negotiations in London, together with David Frost, we agreed today that the conditions for agreement are not met due to significant divergences on level

...