Letters: A protocol is still needed

In his letter (Tinkering with protocol will not suffice, January 9, 2023), Councillor Stephen Cooper argues that the Northern Ireland protocol must be "totally eradicated", but surely it is only essential to deal with those obnoxious parts which have left the province behind still subject to EU laws.

When the UK and the Irish Republic were both in the EU it was necessary to attach two protocols to the EU treaties to reconcile special aspects of our bilateral relationship with the general terms of the treaties – Protocol No 20 about the Common Travel Area, and Protocol No 21 about the area of freedom, security and justice.

The UK is no longer in the EU but the Republic is still a member state, and so it still needs a protocol to regularise its exceptional bilateral dealings with the UK; obviously, however, we cannot tolerate all parts of the present protocol.

Dr D R Cooper, Berkshire