Hello, I'm Hugo Rifkin, and now we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day

and a few things even more important than politics.

Hard to imagine, I know.

And joining me are the historian and columnist Zoe Strimple.

Hello, Zoe.

Hello, Hugo.

So much shorter job titles than you normally get.

I know.

I'm shedding titles by the second.

I just realized I was using up too much of the show, listing your job titles.

And it just couldn't work.

I think it was a good use of time.

And we're also joined by the Times Leader-Riser and former foreign correspondent Michael Binion.

Hello, Hugo.

You should have a longer title time there, Michael. How are you, Michael? I'm well, yes.

Let's crack on. The first thing I want to talk to you guys about is what's going on between the UK and the EU at the moment.

On the front page of the time today, we see the news that the EU has rejected the UK's request to have access to its crime and illegal migration databases. Whitehall sources have been speaking to the paper saying that that won't form part of the big reset in UK-EU relations penned for later this month. Michael, how should we see this?

Is this the EU being rude and nasty and mean, or is this the EU refusing to give us something that we don't have because we left the EU? Both, I think. They're certainly making Britain pay for the fact they took the decision to leave

because they don't want others to follow the example. I don't think anybody else would be

quite so crackers now to do it. But there's an element of that. There's also a really

overly legalistic approach that they say this sets a precedent, so others may want to tap into the database as well

and we can't allow them others would argue it's important to curb illegal asylum seekers or

...