Irish border solution

SIR – A tried-and-tested solution to the Irish border question has been curiously overlooked.

When Britain opted out of the Schengen zone the EU also granted Ireland exemption, to obviate border checks at the Northern Ireland border. Likewise, the EU repeatedly grants exemptions from the customs union for pragmatic reasons that clearly apply to the Northern Ireland border.

These exemptions do not compromise their status as full parts of the EU, any more than Ireland’s opt-out from Schengen compromises its membership of the EU. Such is the EU’S flexibility that the German town of Büsingen and the Italian town of Campione d’italia have even been allowed to join a customs union with a non-eu state, since both towns are entirely surrounded by Switzerland.

The EU has granted a standard set of opt-outs to the likes of Gibraltar, Ceuta and Melilla, exempting them from the customs union, VAT system, Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy. Were such opt-outs to be offered to Ireland, then crossborder tax and tariffs or agrifood regulation could be addressed by Britain and Ireland bilaterally.

Rather than seek “special status” for Northern Ireland, might it not be better for the EU to make the already special status of Ireland that bit more special? Chris Haile

Pinner, Middlesex

SIR – The BBC forecast before 8am yesterday gave the rainfall expected in England in millimetres, but in Northern Ireland it was to fall in imperial measures. Is there some hidden message about Brexit here? Major Colin Robins

Bowdon, Cheshire

SIR – Are we to be the only ex-member of the British Empire to have failed to achieve independence? Martin Shaw

Marlow, Buckinghamshire