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Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, The Spectators Daily Politics Podcast. It's Friday

the 18th of December of Christmas is exactly a week away. And I'm joined by Katie Balls to

chew a cut on what's going on.

So Katie, throughout the Brexit talks, there has been this, this view that, you know,

ultimately this deal isn't going to fail or flounder even over fish. But that now looks

increasingly likely. You had a very downbeat statement from Down Street last night after

Boris Johnson's

core reverse of Wonderline. And you had Michel Barnier speaking this morning saying at the moment

at the hour of truth is arriving and making clear that fishing is the big sticking point

and that the EU wants this eight-year transition for fishing. And then it wants the right to impose

tariffs, not just on fish products,

but on British goods more generally if EU fleets access to those waters is cut at the end of

eight-year transition period. Is, are the two sides just too far apart on fish?

At the moment, yes. But I feel a little bit like I'm in Groundhog Day. We have another Sunday

deadline. That's coming from thehog Day. We have another Sunday deadline. That's

coming from the EU side. We have another debate over whether fishing is going to be what sinks

the deal. Now, those have come at various points. There's definitely a point a week and a half,

two weeks ago, and it looked like fishing was the main obstacle. Then lots of new problems or

old problems, perhaps is a better way to put it, resurfaced. And that became the main obstacle, then lots of new problems or old problems, perhaps, is a better way to put

it, resurfaced. And that became the main point of the discussion. I think on fishing,

what is interesting is the reason, as we've said previously in the podcast, it's so difficult,

...