It turned into a mess, until very recently, because a remainer PM with no negotiating skills treated the whole thing like a damage limitation exercise, and because the EU's useful idiots and quislings over here were determined to undermine the whole process and betray the British people on behalf of their foreign masters.
As indeed they still are: Corbyn has asked the cabinet secretary to intervene in the event of a no-confidence motion being passed. He wants to extend our spell in the EU prison until the General Election could take place.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49285670The pretext for this is that it's "anti-democratic" to leave the EU while an election is pending.
But this is pure nonsense, isn't it? Parliament has already put in place the legislation by which we leave the EU. Parliament has already voted to declare Article 50, without a deal with the EU being a precondition.
Certainly,
revoking any of this before a General Election would be a gross violation of democracy. I can't think of anything more liable to provoke disunity, anger and possibly political violence than some sort of unholy cabal of scheming parliamentarians seizing control of government in order to defy the people's instruction. Especially when it's something as fundamental as
who governs us. That would be a vile abuse of the public's trust.
I don't think any of us could have imagined that the remainers would turn out to be so extraordinarily illiberal and toxic. I don't mean everyone who voted to remain, of course. Many I'm sure understand the need for a public vote to be respected. But the likes of Grieve, Soubry, Benn, Watson, Bercow .. there's going to be a time when they account for the division they have brought to our country.