Letter: Forget the seven tests, here is just one - moves towards a system of export control

With reference to the story ‘Irish Sea Border: Orange Order's Mervyn Gibson says Sir Jeffrey's deal must be right – and the green lane must go’, on your website yesterday morning (see also page 4 in the print newspaper today).

In order to protect the EU single market there must either be checks and controls specifically on the goods destined for export across the land border into the Irish Republic, or alternatively all goods production in Northern Ireland must remain under EU law, with periodic on site checks, and moreover all goods entering the province from Great Britain and elsewhere must also be checked and controlled for conformity with EU requirements.

According to EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier speaking in November the EU views its single market as its "main asset", perhaps even its "single asset", and as a good neighbour we should be willing to help them protect its integrity, but not at any cost to the integrity of our country and our internal UK market, which should not be fragmented as it was under the Northern Ireland Protocol and still is under the deceptive Windsor Framework.

To repeat from nearly a year ago, "Forget seven tests over reform of the Northern Ireland Protocol even three, here is just one", namely the inclusion of moves towards a system of export controls.

A public commitment from the UK government to proceed along that line, and work to prevent the present destructive agreement with the EU becoming the final, permanent, arrangement, would be the most valuable price that the DUP could extract.

Dr D R Cooper, Maidenhead