Letter: The Irish Sea border is a choice made by the British government to back down to Irish/EU demands

I was recently on a bus travelling from Belfast to Dublin airport. We stopped briefly upon crossing our international border while officials from the Irish Republic boarded to check our passports.

It was a brief check which delayed us no more than a few minutes. Many of the passengers on the bus, including myself, were Northern Ireland fans on route to attend the Slovakia match. Everybody respected their authority and complied with the check.

While nobody particularly wants checks when heading anywhere this was reasonable and proportionate. Above all it was the free sovereign nation of the Irish Republic choosing to police their border as they saw fit. They could have chosen to have no checks or more severe checks and, as visitors and good neighbours, we should respect and comply with their choice.

This is why unionists should not accept the line constantly peddled that the Irish Sea border is unavoidable and we simply have to make the best of it. The Irish Sea border is a choice. It is a choice by the Irish government and the EU to refuse to accept Northern Ireland’s border in one instance when they can easily accept it in another if it suits them.

It is a choice by the British government to back down to Irish/EU demands for checks to be in the Irish Sea rather than negotiate a UK-wide arrangement. It is a choice by both governments to pretend they have honoured the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) when they have completely violated the consent principles laid down therein.

People often criticise the effectiveness of Stormont and perhaps with some justification but we have a very difficult system of government that was never designed for effective government but rather for effective representation. It can only really function well (or as well as it can) in an atmosphere of goodwill.

The Irish Sea border continuously injects poison into our political atmosphere because it has upset the balance within our compromise by making unionists the losers. If the two governments really believe in the GFA they must make a different choice and recognise Northern Ireland’s border as a valid trade border.

Mr R G McDowell, Belfast BT5