By William Booth, June 20, 2018<\/p>\n
LONDON \u2014<\/span> It wa s two years ago this week that Britain voted in a historic referendum to leave the European Union. And by now, Brexit was supposed to be pretty far along, with \u201cquick\u201d negotiations starting to yield beautiful trade deals and the glimmer of independence.<\/p>\n But this uncoupling is turning out to be far more difficult and acrimonious than promised.<\/p>\n Nigel Farage, the politician,\u00a0radio showman and arch-Brexiteer, tweeted a cartoon<\/a> this week showing frustrated Britons, some with \u201cLeave\u201d buttons and others with \u201cRemain\u201d buttons, shouting as one, \u201cFor heaven\u2019s sake, get on with it!\u201d<\/p>\n British leaders \u2014 both in the governing Conservative Party and the Labour Party opposition \u2014 apparently can\u2019t get on with it, though, because they can\u2019t agree what \u201cit\u201d is.<\/p>\n A stubborn three-way divide over Brexit persists nine months before it is supposed to go into effect, between supporters of a hard, clean divorce with the European Union and a soft, fuzzy separation \u2014 followed by a third alternative, all those\u00a0who want a do-over<\/a> in a repeat referendum (these folks don\u2019t want any Brexit at all).<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May narrowly survived a crunch vote, fending off a second attempt by Westminster\u2019s unelected second chamber, the House of Lords, to push through an amendment that would give Parliament the power \u2014 \u201ca meaningful vote\u201d is the term of art \u2014 to stop Brexit in the case that May and Brussels fail to ink a deal.<\/p>\n May cheered the passage of an \u201cE.U. withdrawal bill,\u201d without the constraining amendment, as \u201can important step in delivering the Brexit people voted for, a Brexit that gives Britain a brighter future, a Britain in control of its money, laws and borders.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, she said that the day\u2019s votes \u201cshow people in the UK, and to the EU, that the elected representatives in this country are getting on with the job, and delivering on the will of the British people.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet May hasn\u2019t been able to get support from her own Cabinet on what a Brexit deal should look like, and she is oceans away from meeting the demands of the E.U.<\/p>\n Next week, she is headed back to Brussels for what was previously billed as a make-or-break negotiating session with European leaders but will now be much less. Her team\u00a0delayed the publication<\/a>of a blueprint on the future U.K.-E.U. relations until July, or whenever, because her Cabinet cannot agree.<\/p>\n European officials now say the Brexit deal is unlikely to be hammered out until October, maybe November \u2014 alternatively, before Christmas.<\/p>\n Absent an agreement with the E.U. on commerce, defense, immigration, monetary and myriad other arrangements, Britain would be free of Europe, yes, but estranged from its largest trading and security partner.<\/p>\n This \u201ccliff-edge\u201d Brexit remains a possibility.<\/p>\n May\u2019s negotiators say they need the credible threat of walking away from negotiations to muscle Brussels to favorable compromise.<\/p>\n A no-deal finale terrifies Britain\u2019s business and financial establishment, among many others.<\/p>\n Two-thirds of those surveyed in a British YouGov poll said the May government is doing Brexit badly \u2014 a higher proportion than ever.<\/p>\n The pro-Brexit Sun tabloid\u00a0published an editorial<\/a> this month wondering aloud where all this is going. \u201cThere is a worrying sense of drift in Downing Street,\u201d the paper wrote, suggesting that May is doing little more than managing to \u201ccling on.\u201d<\/p>\n Bloomberg observed<\/a>: \u201cA pattern is emerging in the politics of Brexit Britain: a crisis, then a vague compromise that keeps all sides happy. The compromise is soon revealed to be an unsustainable fudge.\u201d<\/p>\n Priti Patel, a Tory member of Parliament who was pushed from her ministerial post for\u00a0freelancing her own foreign policy<\/a> in Israel, criticized May\u2019s leadership, tweeting<\/a>: \u201cThese political games have serious consequences. .\u2009.\u2009. The Government should have shown the leadership required to deliver for Britain, rather than being bogged down in factionalism.\u201d<\/p>\n This month, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson\u2019s remarks at a dinner speech asserting that Trump would be better at Brexit than May\u00a0were leaked<\/a> \u2014 as he probably could have imagined they would be in a ballroom filled with mobile phones.<\/p>\n