The foreign secretary’s reference to the lack of borders between London boroughs (Johnson: task is to avoid harder border with Irish Republic, 28 February), like many of his comments, brings farce to the fore – this time in a reminder of the 1949 Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico. In the film, a small part of London discovers an old document that shows it is not actually part of London or the UK at all (really Burgundian indeed!), and separates from the UK to avoid the restrictions and bureaucracy that membership of this larger unit places upon it. Pimlico, however, cannot manage on its own and, after a period of conflict between the exiter and the larger unit, a resolution is found. Reason and cooperation rule the day: Pimlico rejoins the UK and leaves behind the historic fantasy that started it all.
Tony Cole
London
• It would appear that the way the government proposes to square the seemingly impossible circle of creating Brexit yet retaining an open border in Ireland, and no border in the Irish Sea, is via clever technology that recognises vehicle number plates. But, leaving to one side the seamless import or export of potatoes in large lorries, what we have not heard from anyone in government is how they will deal with people wishing to enter the UK from Ireland.
Therefore, in the post-Brexit era, all that any person from an EU member state who wishes to move into England will need to do is fly to Dublin and, unimpeded by any border controls, catch the next train or bus to Belfast, and then travel from Belfast to London, where they will be able to remain as long as they wish.
Ian Davis
Wheatley, Oxfordshire
• If a hard border between Northern Ireland and the rest of Great Britain is not acceptable, and a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is not acceptable, and reneging on the 2016 referendum result is not acceptable, the obvious solution is surely for Ireland to rejoin the UK. I think our foreign secretary, alongside his trusty bus, is just the person to sell the idea to the Irish electorate.
Mike Shearing
London
• The EU draft withdrawal agreement is not “a gambit in a negotiation that has barely started” as Anand Menon says (Opinion, 1 March). It is an attempt by the EU to state in comprehensive legal terms what was agreed in principle by both sides in December, some considerable time into the short period we have to process this wretched and complex business. Like Mrs May, Menon offers us no thought-out solution to the Irish border problem, but seems to blithely assume that one will appear by magic if May “faces down the EU” by “playing the long game”. This is surely exactly the failing approach that May has been pursuing since article 50 was triggered, and which she will be forced to abandon by the end of this month.
Steve Smart
Malvern, Worcestershire
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