The UK should not have tried to solve an Ireland-EU problem over the border

I wonder if I am alone in believing that the circumstances which produced the NI Protocol were just a case of the UK interfering in what was essentially a private dispute between the Irish Republic and the European Union?

After all, it was the EU which wanted a hard customs border somewhere or other. Was not the UK basically happy to continue with a free trade arrangement? The fatal step taken by the British government was to try and help the Irish government out by suggesting solutions as if this were somehow a UK responsibility.

Looking back, would it not have been better for the British government to declare itself in favour of free trade and thus against all hard customs borders on these islands? Having told the EU that there would be no additional customs checks on UK territory, would that not have switched the focus back on where it should have been all along – the EU wanting a hard border and the Irish government not being too keen on organising it on the Irish side of the frontier?

If the UK stopped trying to solve other people’s problems, we could let the EU and the Irish government argue it out. With goods flowing from GB to NI and from north to south without additional checks, it would be for this unhappy couple to decide on whether they wanted customs posts on the Irish side of the frontier with Northern Ireland.

Dr Paul Kingsley, Belfast BT4