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, normally in Brussels, currently in Derry.

I'm Sean Wheelan, RTE's London correspondent, back in London.

And I'm Colm Ongoing, RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor in Dublin.

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

This week, the Tories went to Manchester, still threatening to trigger Article 16.

European Commission Vice President Maros Shefftrovich zoomed into Dublin, dropping broad hints about how the EU will respond to the UK's command paper.

There were happier noises in Belfast after a meeting between the Taoiseach and DUP leader Geoffrey Donaldson.

Later we'll hear from the UUP leader, Doug Beatty, on how his

party's ploughing its own furrow. And we'll hear a bit more on what the EU's response to the UK

command paper will and won't propose. Okay, Tony, we'll be back to you shortly on that. But first,

Sean, let's go back to that Tory conference we mentioned at the start of the introduction.

You were there for longer than the Tory Party conference, you were there the preceding weekend, soaking up the atmosphere in Manchester and then there for the Tory Party conference.

In terms of Brexit being on the agenda, it was very much a footnote to the whole thing. Would that be fair to say?

Yeah, they got it out of the way early on at an ungentlemanly hour. Ten past nine on a Monday

morning, really not terribly suitable for journalists like myself, or indeed many other people, because

...