BORIS Johnson has at last revealed his master plan for Brexit, and in it he has, deliberately, sown the seeds of its rejection.

The EU has repeatedly stated that there has to be no border in Ireland, but the Prime Minister proposes just that, knowing that he can blame the EU for refusing his “compromise”.

His proposal to give the Northern Irish Assembly a veto on future changes is incredible, as this body has not met for almost three years, there having been no inclination on the part of the government to have it reconvened while being reliant upon the support of the DUP at Westminster: a situation that he now is dependent upon.

A cynic might think that this offer is a bribe to win support for his Brexit Plan, by giving the DUP control of Brexit in Northern Ireland.

Coupled with reports that he might seek another Queen’s Speech prorogation on October 17, this would imply that he again will try to stifle opposition to his preferred option of leaving without a deal on October 31.

It is to be hoped that Her Majesty will not be pleased at an attempt to manipulate her as part of his sordid political game, and might reply to his request that “You have had your prorogation”.

T J Dowds, Cumbernauld

BORIS Johnson’s revised Brexit plan appears to be a shameless exercise in style over substance. It is a plan more concerned with preparations for a forthcoming general election than for opening realistic discussions with the EU on how to manage the British border in Ireland following the UK’s departure from the EU.

The Prime Minister’s deal is insubstantial, incoherent and ill- conceived and he knows it will surely be rejected by EU negotiators.

To suggest that a vague kind of customs border would be necessary without the appropriate infrastructure or security is not only disrespectful to the people who live on the island of Ireland but demonstrates a breathtaking arrogance and utter lack of serious purpose.

The proposed deal has Dominic Cummings’ fingerprints all over it. Mr Cummings has no interest whatsoever in concluding an agreement with the EU; his designated remit is to exit as soon as possible and to bolster the profile of the Conservative Party to enable it to win a general election. He and the Prime Minister have concocted a red herring that they know will be doomed to failure but which will increase their kudos with Brexiters and with a rabid, xenophobic right-wing press which is anxious to paint the EU as unreasonable and therefore responsible for a no- deal scenario.

Mr Johnson’s continual description of border issues in Ireland as primarily technical ignores the fact that there are approximately 208 official road crossing points as well as the enormous impact any kind of border controls could have on maintaining peace for the people of Ireland.

It is no surprise that the business community in Northern Ireland is united against any deal that would impose a hard border of any type, though both the Prime Minister and the DUP seem impervious to their entreaties and to those who plead with them to keep faith with the tenets and spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.The specifically unilateral caretaker role assigned to a DUP-led Stormont to act as sentinel to this agreement is designed wholly for political expediency and not for a tangible way forward in reaching a compromise with the EU.

Only a solution to the border in Ireland that deals sensitively with politics, peace and identity can ever succeed in the future. Mr Johnson views Ireland in archaic, colonial terms as an inconvenience that can be obfuscated or even ignored. The Irish question dealt a death knell to Mrs May’s premiership. Boris Johnson is next in line.

Owen Kelly, Stirling

AFTER 20 years of harmony and increasing economic success, brokered largely by the European Union and America, Ireland, north and south, finds itself ruthlessly manipulated by its large and self-interested near-neighbour, the United Kingdom, putting both its economy and peace at risk.

Following on from the Tudors, the Stuarts, Cromwell, and the catastrophic 19th-century union with Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland in particular yet again finds its future undermined by an over-entitled blond buffoon and his right-wing cronies from the English political classes, purely for his and their own political, and imagined economic, benefit.

The luck of the Irish? Aye... right!

John Jamieson, Ayr

IN consideration of the obvious millions being spent on TV and newspaper advertising in relation to the necessary preparatory work required for October 31, it is my hope that said date does not change, in order to prevent further taxpayers’ money going “Down the drain.”

Derek B. Petrie, Milngavie

TO no-one’s great astonishment, the EU is now saying that Boris Johnson’s plan for the Irish border is utterly unacceptable. Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, has also criticised Johnson’s plans for an alternative to the Irish backstop. What an unholy mess. How can we possibly trust politicians again after the catastrophe they have visited upon us?

D MacDonald, Glasgow