Dear Editor,
With reference of Katy Balls' article "How can Johnson shore up support?", she contemplates the possibility that Johnson would gamble everything and opt for his own personal survival as Tory leader and PM, by ditching Article 16 to suspend the Northern ireland protocol, even if it provokes a new damaging trade war with the EU and will further exacerbate community tensions in Northern Ireland.
It is no use now complaining about the loss of UK geographic integrity caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol. That occurred following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which gave Northern Ireland peace, within the framework of the European Union and an all Ireland Council. Brexit, and in particular departure from the EU customs union, made that Agreement less palatable to the Protestant community in Northern ireland, just as they were becoming a minority in that province, but the resulting Northern Ireland Protocol merely reflected the new reality with the imposition of border controls on the Irish Sea ports to protect the EU single market, of which Northern Ireland was now a part.
However, short of renegotiating everything with the EU to rejoin the customs union, or allowing a referendum to lead eventually to a united Ireland, the short term answer is to make the Northern Ireland protocol work. That this can be done, as I have demonstrated in my correspondence with the Cabinet Office, by setting up a system where all relevant Northern Ireland enterprises register as "end users" for exports from Great Britain to Northern Ireland only, and by providing with each shipment destined for Northern Ireland alone, an "end user certificate" with which any customs control or eventual tax on these goods can be avoided. However because of UK politicking, this kind of sensible solution has not been properly examined, not even by civil servants, let alone politicians.
Yours faithfully
Wiktor MoszczynskiSent to the Editor of i on 17th February 2022
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