If this is being glossed over by the UK media, though, the growing legion of complications has not entirely evaded the
Irish Times. There, Chris Johns writes of the UK's stance being "madness without method".
As a matter of EU law, he observes, all of the infrastructure necessary to police this new customs frontier between the EU and the rest of the world would have to be placed on the Irish side of the Border.
"Think about that for a second and appreciate the ironies", he says, "
the discomfort and the expense. All of the border checks inside the Republic. Nothing on the UK side".
Somebody in Whitehall, he suggests, "is willing to bet that the Government will put pressure on Brussels to compromise, to do anything to avoid this outcome".
He thus asks whether the British have finally discovered some negotiating leverage.
The tack has changed towards minimising the costs by changing as little as possible, giving the world (not just the EU) tariff-free access to the British economy and dumping all of the consequential blame on Brussels.
"This could, at a very long stretch", concludes John, "be described as a well thought out strategy but for one simple problem: it's nuts".