Change to backstop would benefit Ireland as well as the UK

Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to become the next prime minister. Photograph: Peter Summers/Getty ImagesMy article on the Irish backstop (Journal, 13 June) has aroused a predictable reaction from those like Oscar Despard (Letters, 19 June) who hold to the surely outdated view that Britain’s crisis is Ireland’s opportunity. Mr Despard and those who think like him have not read my article very carefully, or they would have appreciated my argument that Irish generosity would on this occ