Sir, – The British government's misrepresentation of the Assembly election results as justification for unilateral action on the protocol has wider implications, as it must now be seen to have abandoned any lingering pretence of impartiality in respect of the Belfast Agreement ("UK will have 'no choice but to act' if EU not flexible on NI protocol, says Truss", News, May 12th).
There can therefore be little confidence that this British government will trigger a reunification referendum no matter how much support for the union with Britain declines.
Brexit created a democratic deficit in a region which was removed from the EU despite voting to remain. One obvious remedy would be to allow the Assembly a say in the timing of the referendum which would return the North to the EU.
As an effective counterbalance to the constraints that those opposed to reunification will undoubtedly seek to impose, this should now become a political priority. – Yours, etc,
PAUL LAUGHLIN,
Derry.
Sir, – Have other readers of this page noticed how few letters there are these days from unionists or people who believe we should try to understand unionists better?
In the past, The Irish Times has had a small but significant number of unionist readers in the North.
However, over the past week, since the Northern Ireland Assembly election, I have counted 21 letters to the editor on this topic, of which only one could be said to be in any way sympathetic to unionists.
It would be instructive, for example, to hear some unionist views on why they are so passionately opposed to the NI protocol.
If this is part of the “greening” of The Irish Times, so be it: every newspaper is entitled to its editorial policy.
But it is a shame because this page has traditionally been used as a forum for debate involving all public opinion on this island.
And we will need all the forums we can get if one of these days we are going to start a serious public debate about the existential issue of possible paths to Irish unity. – Yours, etc,
ANDY POLLAK,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.