Boiling the frogs

Theresa May is either being very clever or rather stupid.  But we seem to be heading for an ever softer Brexit.  The Independent reports:

The frog-boiling is going well. Theresa May has turned up the temperature another notch and Boris Johnson has still not jumped out of the pan. Nor has Liam Fox, Michael Gove or David Davis. 

At the meeting of the Brexit committee of cabinet on Tuesday, the prime minister came up with a plan so cunning no one could work out what it meant. She asked them to agree what would happen if there was no agreement about trade by the end of the transition period after Brexit. 

The foreign secretary grumbled a bit, but agreed with the prime minister that the UK would then continue to apply the EU’s common external tariff until a new arrangement was ready. Considering that the systems to do anything else could not be in place by December 2020, the end of the 21-month transition period after leaving the EU, this did not appear to be a significant moment. 

Indeed, as any new customs arrangements could not be put in place until well after the next general election in May 2022, it may well be the case that we are blessed (or doomed) to remain in the EU's customs/single market regime for the foreseeable future.  And the forces of inertia (better the devil you know and all that) may preclude any significant change in status thereafter.

But perhaps I am too optimistically counting my (chlorine-washed) chickens before thay have hatched ...