Sir, – The article by David Davis, who tells us that he is "UK secretary of state for exiting the European Union", is trying to reassure us that Brexit is not a momentous decision with enormous implications for not alone the UK but also the EU and not least for the relationship between the UK and Ireland ("Ireland does not have to choose between the UK and the EU", Opinion & Analysis, September 8).
He seems to think that the Brexit vote will not have a deleterious effect on the billion-euro trade between the two countries on these islands. He is mistaken.
He says that under Brexit, “Ireland will not have to choose between having a strong commitment to the EU or the UK”. Any assessment of Brexit that is based on reality would have to conclude that Ireland is being forced to make such a choice.
He promises to “strengthen the political and commercial ties” between the two countries.
That was already the situation since both countries joined what is now the EU in 1973. Brexit has, however, unilaterally broken up that arrangement.
Telling us, in relation to Northern Ireland, that “there will be no return to the borders of the past” is flying in the face of reality.
Brexit by definition is a decision to put a border between the UK and the rest of the EU. Otherwise there was no point in voting for it. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
