One of the UUP’s Protocol proposals is actually three years old

Studying the alternative Protocol proposals made by the Ulster Unionist Party, I note that the first on the list is not the establishment of a cross-border body – which clearly has touched some very raw nerves – but the passage of a UK law to prohibit the export to the Republic of goods which do not comply with EU requirements.

This was first suggested to Prime Minister Theresa May in February 2018; then, in a more developed form, it was proposed by a former EU official in August 2019; and at last it has found its way into the UK government’s recent Command Paper.

So why is the government not just going ahead and drafting the legislation?

Whatever else happens, such a UK law will be necessary, and moreover it would make redundant some of the more obnoxious provisions of the protocol.

Dr D R Cooper, Maidenhead, Berkshire