National Humiliation at the Hands of the EU

It seems there is a growing consensus that a UK-wide backstop, to get round the Irish border issue, would be limitless purgatory and represent the worst response possible to the task of exiting the EU.  One has to ask, why did our Civil Service not see the border issue coming and draft the negotiation protocols accordingly?  Now, resulting entirely from collective incompetence, politicians and civil servants, our negotiating position amounts to conceding to the EU that, whatever the outcome, the UK will ensure that the EU is in no way disadvantaged. The concept of nakedness and conference chambers only scratches the surface of the current shameful debacle.