I'm no expert when it comes to politics so forgive me if this is incorrect. All this cross party discussion about cancelling Brexit or extending it yet again, seems to imply the British government have the say and control in this, but doesn't the rest of EU have some control in this. The Lib Dems voted that they would scrap Brexit if they came to power after an election, but having submitted article 50 can that be revoked ? - Presumably if article 50 can be cancelled it would be based on a unanimous vote by the other EU members ? - If they vote against it, then we are legally compelled to leave on an agreed date, which seems to be constantly moved.
Bottom line as I see it, regardless of being a leaver or stayer, is we live in a democracy (well you would think so), and that by a slim margin the vote in the referendum was to leave the EU. Irrespective of what side of the fence you voted that was the outcome. To not respect that result and to cancel or have another vote is not democratic at all. It would also set a president in that any public or private vote on any future policies could be simply overturned. Public vote on HS2 / Heathrow expansion... whatever... it wouldn't matter as we would be living under a dictatorship government because they would point to the fact the Brexit result was ignored.
Maybe we should leave with no deal, and then having a clean sheet, negotiate after Brexit as they haven't seemed to have done much in the 3 years after the result leading up to it. I'm sure all those EU countries with businesses that have the UK as a big customer would be putting pressure on their governments to ensure trade with the UK after Brexit can remain.
Finally, do you think the UK people are as passionate about leaving as they were shortly after the result was announced... if they scrapped Bexit do you think there would be riots and protest such as the "polltax" riots decades ago ? or are the UK so disillusioned with the whole political mess that they have lost interest in Brexit ?
My brain is logically wired. The UK went to the vote and the results were to leave 2 years after handing in our resignation of membership of the EU... we should have left by now ! - Calling for a second vote just because some people didn't like the result of the original is just so illogical.
The single largest problem with the referendum was the question asked, basically did we want the then government to invoke Article 50. That was it, no options on the type of deal post Brexit, no mention of no deal, just asking the government to start the process. After that with no mandate on how or when to leave, the referendum result handed responsibility over to Parliament.
However on inspection of the options, it became clear that the lack of an initial mandate created deep divisions in Westminster (and indeed Whitehall too). So when May's government finally agreed a deal with the EU, MPs could not agree because no single route out of the EU had been agreed be it by the referendum, or any legislation to enact it. In short the referendum was the problem, to which no one solution was proposed.
This is why we are where we are, and why simply carrying on with the notion that the UK voted to leave, with or without a deal is deeply flawed. If, and its a big if, a deal can be negotiated & passed in the next few weeks, the Brexit should go ahead as per the referendum result because this represent the best Brexit option. If no deal can be agreed, then regardless of what the PM or public desire, we should not simply chuck ourselves over the economic cliff simply to say "we did it". Any post no deal negotiations will be considerably more difficult, will take far longer than trying to reshape the current proposals, and will leave the UK with a very uncertain short term economic future, with no guarantee it will get better with time.
Sometimes in life you have to accept, in the face of new evidence, that previous decisions were either wrong or made without the full picture. This is life, and applies to Brexit just as much as it does everything else. It can now be said with some degree of certainly that no deal is not only the worst case scenario, it is really one we as a country should not be even contemplating, let alone aspiring to. Therefore we need to re-ask the question properly, and answer it with a more considered, informed view.