We've focused a lot in recent months on the battle against COVID-19, understandably, and that hasn't gone away, of course, but neither has Brexit.

And so on today's red lines, we're discussing the countdown to the end of the transition period.

And just to get us started, are the final stages of Brexit about to kick off while most people are looking the other way, John?

I don't think we can say final because we know that even if the Northern Ireland part of the deal all gets sorted out,

then that is subject to a consent mechanism every four years or potentially every eight years.

So Brexit is going to continue to be a background noise in British politics and particularly

in Northern Ireland politics for years to come. But if you like, the kind of Brexit as a lived

reality on the ground is now bearing down on us very, very quickly because essentially what we are

happening now, what we're seeing now,

is the Irish Sea border is being designed and on the current timetable it is going to be

implemented come the 1st of January.

Naomi?

I would say yes.

There's only, I think, three weeks remaining in which the UK could conceivably ask for an extension. And if it doesn't,

that has implications for its relationship with its biggest training partner that will have

effects for years to come. I can't emphasize enough how to determine the government is that Brexit

happens on time. They've made this a test of virility with the public and with their own party.

So there's an extent to which the more things go wrong with everything else, the more determined

they are to stick to the Brexit timetable. Well, hopefully this conversation will help people to

reset their Brexit sat nav. My guests, by the way, are our economics and business editor John Campbell,

the Irish Times Europe correspondent and co-host of the Irish passport podcast Naomi O'Leary,

who's in Brussels and the columnist and commentator Newton Emerson. Welcome to you all. John,

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