ANALYSIS

London: Half of the United Kingdom is in denial. They don't think they're in denial. They think they're being ingenious.

They're not.

Imagine there's a big issue that a country needs to decide.

For months, it is endlessly discussed in the media until everyone is utterly sick of the arguments, claims and counter-claims, which they know back to front.

Then, finally, the people go out and vote, and the issue is decided with a majority of more than a million choosing one option over the other.

Then the government, whose job it is to implement this result, and which has promised many times to do so, turns around and says, "Well look, we've heard some anecdotes about some people who regret their decision, and anyway you made the wrong choice and didn't realise the consequences, so we're not going to do it."

Imagine the future of this government, and the MPs in the Parliament who backed such a stance.

Not a long future, you'd think.

Idealists sacrifice their careers for their principles.

Last time I looked, Westminster was not stuffed with idealists.

Bear this in mind the next time someone on social media shares their cunning scheme by which Brexit won't happen.

Not to bore you with the technical details, but Brexit must happen through Article 50, a European Union treaty clause that begins an irrevocable process under which the UK leaves the EU.

The only thing that activates Article 50 is an official notice to Brussels from the UK government.

After that, there's a fairly strict two-year timetable until you're out of Europe, with or without a new trade deal.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he won't pull this Brexit trigger. He said it's for the next prime minister, whoever that (ahem Boris Johnson) might be. But even Cameron says they must pull it.

Not to do so would be stunningly anti-democratic, "screw-you-voters" political suicide, and probably hand the country over to a righteous UKIP (stuffed with Conservative defectors) at the next election.

Some have argued that Parliament could stop Brexit from happening. After all, most MPs - a majority of Labour, SNP and Conservatives - are pro-Remain.

One way they could do this would be through a second referendum to override the first.

It's technically possible. See above, it would be stunningly unpopular with the public. Politicians who do unpopular things tend not to last very long.

Assuming this doesn't happen, the first time Parliament has a say on Brexit will be in a few years' time, when it's a choice between the Brexit deal, or no deal at all.

If Parliament vetos the Brexit legislation, this would not prevent Brexit. It will just mean that, whatever has been negotiated to take the place of the current treaties, would not take effect. Britain would still leave Europe.

So much for the "Scotland can veto Brexit" theory. (Oh, by the way, a new Scottish independence referendum would also have to be approved by the House of Commons. Think that's likely?)

Of course, the fact that parliament has to approve the Brexit deal does have an impact. It may influence the government, even a government of Leavers, to keep some elements of the Europe relationship that the public sort of voted against.

In particular, there will be a long debate over whether Britain might accept some kind of modified freedom of movement deal, allowing some EU workers into Britain, in exchange for lower trade barriers.

But even if the Brits want it, there's no guarantee the Europeans would grant it.

Brussels' main game now is to keep the rest of the union together. They don't want to give the impression that you can get a better deal by voting to leave.

There has been some talk of "informal negotiations" before pressing the big red Article 50 button. Some have interpreted this as a sign that no-one will press it.

But the reason they want to start with "informal negotiations" is that once you activate Article 50 that's not a lot of time to renegotiate an entire trade relationship, and once the clock is running Britain's bargaining position is pretty dire.

So they want to string it out as long as possible, to get the maximum amount of time to persuade Brussels to play nice on a new trade deal.

But not too long of course, because UKIP would make hay with too long a delay, and markets hate uncertainty so the economy will suffer.

Of course, it's a s--- sandwich.

But it's the s--- sandwich that the British people asked for.

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