Sir, You report that the EU is “preparing to accept a frictionless Irish border after Brexit” (News, Sep 17) and is planning “to use technological solutions to minimise customs checks”. Your article says that Sabine Weyand, the deputy to Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiatior, told EU ambassadors, “these controls would not have to happen at a border”.

This appears to be a plan for the EU’s preferred option of a border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Dividing our country with an internal frontier remains unacceptable, but the practical ideas for controls that take place away from the border, which are now apparently being considered by Brussels, could equally well be applied to the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic