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 Brethren, RTE's correspondent in London.

And I'm Colombeam Ongoing, RTE's Deputy Foreign Editor in Dublin. Each week, Brexit Republic assesses all the latest Brexit developments in Brussels, London and in Dublin.

This week another plunge in relations over the Northern Ireland Protocol, as the UK once again announces it will decide itself on how to implement the protocol and the European

Commission once again threatens legal action.

We'll examine how things deteriorated so quickly as the war of words deepens.

And we'll remind listeners that the protocol grace periods are not the only ones in town.

The UK has been applying its own grace periods for food imports and custom

formalities and they're running out in April and July. We'll hear from a customs expert on how

things have been going so far for Irish companies and how tricky they're going to get. And speaking

of food, we've uncovered a curious tale of reverse colonisation as a British gourmet food store in Belgium

avoids closure by stocking galti rashers and supervalue milk.

But first people in Ireland were greeted to the sound of a very angry Simon Coveney

yesterday morning as Britain unilaterally announced extensions to the grace periods in the Northern Ireland

protocol. Let's hear from him

...