UK Agreed Treaty with UK, voted in Parliament. Now to appease DUP Johnson wants to tear up treaty. What's wrong with Irish bangers?

?My Note in Financial Times 21 July 2021

?Northern Ireland stance is a mockery of democracy

?Denzil Davidson eloquently describes the problems of trade with Northern Ireland (Opinion, July 17) but leaves out key points. First, any supermarket or corner shop in Northern Ireland can be supplied with all its traditional meat, sausage, bacon and ham products from the Republic of Ireland. The idea that only a made-in-England sausage is good enough on the breakfast tables of Ulster is quaint but silly.

Second, deriding the Swiss seems shortsighted. Swiss democracy — very much influenced by Calvinist traditions like that of Protestant Northern Ireland — is fiercely independent. The UK agrees any number of supranational rules with other European governments. Are the Swiss now craven slaves of Brussels because in order to trade their sausages and cheese with France and Germany they agree a few common rules?

Third, parliamentary democracy is in play. Boris Johnson brought back the deal and took it through parliament. It was endorsed in a general election. MPs have voted for the second partition of Northern Ireland in a century — this one in terms of trade. Yes, some Northern Ireland politicians object but it makes a mockery of British democracy to say their fundamentalism can plunge Brexit and the whole of the UK into deeper crisis than is necessary.

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Denis MacShane Former Europe Minister London SW1, UK