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 podcast on Brexit.

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

I'm Sean Whelan, RTE's correspondent in London, but this week in Manchester for the Conservative Party Conference.

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

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

And of course, in Manchester, we'll be looking ahead to the Tory Party Conference there next week and looking back at Keir Starmers' speech at the Labour Party Conference.

We'll hear from Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, about post-Brexit relationships and making Brexit work.

And we'll get an update from Simon Coveney on where things are with the Northern Ireland protocol and why Ireland is opening a new consulate in Manchester. And fish is back on the menu with a sudden

flare up on the high seas over French access to UK waters, in particular the fishing grounds

of Jersey and why Paris is threatening trade sanctions against Britain as a result. But first,

Sean, as we mentioned, you're in Manchester. I think you said before we started to record this,

the worst apartment you've been in since Pristina in the 1990s. That's quite the boast. What's the

reason behind the suffering? No tables, dodgy internet and a television set that doesn't show domestic channels like BBC and ITV or Sky News.

Rather difficult if you're a broadcast journalist who likes to keep up with the news.

It does have windows, they do leak the air in, I'm afraid to say,

that when we did stay in that Grand Hotel in Pristina, Tony, you might remember coming

...