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. 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. And I'm Colom O'Monggaon, RTE's

Deputy Foreign Editor in Dublin. Each week, Brexit Republic assesses all the latest Brexit developments

in Brussels, London and Dublin. This week, London and Brussels attempt to lower the temperature

on the Northern Ireland Protocol after an exchange of barbed letters between the UK's Michael Gove and his opposite number,

Maros Shefchievich, on who's to blame for the current slump in relations.

We'll assess how the meeting between both men went in London on Thursday night and where we go from

here. And while Europe worries about sending British sausages to Belfast and garden bulbs to

Balimina, London and Brussels have been running the numbers on the huge impact of COVID and Brexit on their economies.

And we'll have a German view of life in Northern Ireland under the protocol.

But first to you, Tony Michael Gove and Marashevich meeting in London,

Mihal Martin was saying during the week it was time to dial down the rhetoric.

There was pretty hard rhetoric going into this meeting,

but there seemed to be a sense of calm in the statement issued in the readout afterwards.

...