Hello, Brexit, my old friend, we've come to talk about you again.

Yes, we may be gripped by a global pandemic, but if there's one subject that can distract us from coronavirus, it's Brexit.

With less than three weeks until the UK leave, the transition period and the European Union for good,

talks towards a trade deal are still dragging on. Arbitrary deadlines have come and

gone. The new deadline is now Sunday, but even that could slip. The actual deadline, of course,

is December the 31st at 11pm. After the dinner between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen

on Wednesday night to try and break the deadlock today, We digest what could happen next. With me, Daniel

Hewitt, him. Hello. Shehab Khan, of course, our political editor Robert Peston, who will be

calling shortly, and our Europe editor, James Mate, who was in Brussels where that dinner took

place on Wednesday. But first of all, Shehab, it'll be a year exactly on Sunday since Boris Johnson

returned as Prime Minister with an 80 seat majority. Where has that year gone? He promised him to get

Brexit done. On Sunday, he could be announcing whether or not he's got a Brexit trade deal done

too. Quite extraordinary the year we've had, isn't it?

It's been unbelievable. I don't know about you. It feels like this year has really dragged on had, isn't it? It's been unbelievable. And I don't know about you,

it feels like this year has really dragged on, which isn't something I'd say often. Usually

at the end of the year, you say, oh, it's gone so quickly. But I feel like when we started

this podcast in the midst of the election campaign, that feels like a lifetime ago now. We've

obviously had a global pandemic and lockdowns along the way, which is probably why I feel that way. But I don't know how you feel down.

We're still talking about Brexit though. That is the most amazing thing about all this is I was reflecting as you do in December about the year that's just gone. And it's just, when I read on Twitter that it was exactly a year on Sunday,

this deadline that the EU and the UK have come up with, the latest deadline they've come up with to say, we can get a deal done or not. I just couldn't actually quite believe the symmetry,

that it's exactly a year since Boris Johnson walked back into Downing Street as Prime Minister

with an 80-seat majority. I remember I was in the street when he walked back in and I heard the cheers as he walked back to number 10. And to think that a year later, we are still talking about it. I mean,

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