Welcome to In Conversation, the regular podcast of InCompass. Go to InCampus-Hifference.combe

for free access to all our podcast to date. This is Paul Adamson and this is not a typical

podcast of mine in that I am not the person asking the questions.

I am the guest of Matthew Kirk, former diplomat, an international affairs advisor at the law firm

Squire Patton Boggs, and a member of the advisory board of the think tank Ruzzi.

Matthew has asked me to take part in a Brexit stock take, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Welcome to a now and next breaking news podcast from Squire Pattonbogs. My name is Matthew Kirk.

I'm International Affairs Advisor at Squire Pattern Boggs. And in this conversation, we look at the

prospects for a Brexit deal. Where have we got to, how did we get here,

and what happens next. I'm joined in this conversation by Paul Adamson. Paul is chairman of

Forum Europe, editor and founder of the online magazine in Compass, and the founder of the EU-UK

Forum. Paul has been a prominent member of veteran of the

Brussels policy scene for several decades, really spanning almost all of the United Kingdom's

membership of the European Union. We recorded this conversation just after the British Prime Minister and the President of the Commission

had decided when they reached the latest Brexit deadline to continue the talks but not to set a new deadline.

Thank you. Paul, welcome. It's good to be with you today.

Could I start perhaps just with a very basic question? We had, obviously, last week, yet another Brexit deadline came and went, and we were then heading for no deal, and then we started talking again until Sunday when a hard decision was going to be taken and the hard decision that was taken was to carry on talking.

Is there such a thing as a real deadline in this process?

Well, first of all, Matri, thank you for this invitation.

You've been very supportive to me in my various guidance in the past,

so I finally get the chance to reciprocate.

I think deadlines are for the birth, frankly.

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