This is not an insane puzzle, it's very, very simple.
"Brexit" is possible, but it would be in all cases disastrous for Britain. This is obvious. But Brexiters don't want a real-world Brexit they want a fantasy land Brexit where they have every single benefit of being part of Europe and the EU but they want to be able to ignore any obligations "imposed" upon them by that very advantageous relationship. This is, of course, a childish and unreasonable position, nevertheless a great many people were convinced that it was really quite reasonable or that at least that voting for Brexit was a show of solidarity representing British Independence and Strength and yadda yadda yadda, etc. Unfortunately for them, a majority of voters were fooled into voting for Brexit, causing it to pass out of the fantasy realm where it was a meaningless signal of political beliefs into the realm of reality where it will be an unmitigated clusterfuck of epic proportions if it is carried off. Indeed, I suspect if a second referendum were held the following week after the Brexit vote, with the restriction that only those who voted in the first could vote in the second, it would have gone down in flames.
The complication here is that the current party in power, Theresa May's coalition, has a very tenuous hold on that power. They know that if there are new elections they are out. And May knows that if she doesn't kowtow to the Brexiter minority in parliament then her coalition will crash and burn. So she's trying to hold onto power (until 2022) by going through the motions and doing the best she can without any possible clue how to actually get through this mess.
Which comes back to the core problem again. The majority (now) do not want a Brexit. While the Brexiters want "Brexit, but good for Britain" which is an impossibility.
"Brexit" is possible, but it would be in all cases disastrous for Britain. This is obvious. But Brexiters don't want a real-world Brexit they want a fantasy land Brexit where they have every single benefit of being part of Europe and the EU but they want to be able to ignore any obligations "imposed" upon them by that very advantageous relationship. This is, of course, a childish and unreasonable position, nevertheless a great many people were convinced that it was really quite reasonable or that at least that voting for Brexit was a show of solidarity representing British Independence and Strength and yadda yadda yadda, etc. Unfortunately for them, a majority of voters were fooled into voting for Brexit, causing it to pass out of the fantasy realm where it was a meaningless signal of political beliefs into the realm of reality where it will be an unmitigated clusterfuck of epic proportions if it is carried off. Indeed, I suspect if a second referendum were held the following week after the Brexit vote, with the restriction that only those who voted in the first could vote in the second, it would have gone down in flames.
The complication here is that the current party in power, Theresa May's coalition, has a very tenuous hold on that power. They know that if there are new elections they are out. And May knows that if she doesn't kowtow to the Brexiter minority in parliament then her coalition will crash and burn. So she's trying to hold onto power (until 2022) by going through the motions and doing the best she can without any possible clue how to actually get through this mess.
Which comes back to the core problem again. The majority (now) do not want a Brexit. While the Brexiters want "Brexit, but good for Britain" which is an impossibility.