The Horns Of Brexit

David Cameron's original sin was the arrogance of a posh boy who was more clever than smart and confused the two.  He managed to win the gamble on the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, because - despite 50-50 feelings on the subject, about 5% of people who leaned independence worried about the potential problems created by leaving the United Kingdom.  This resulted in a spike in support for the SNP, which hurt Labour, Cameron's electoral rival.

Meanwhile, UKIP - the closest Britain has ideologically to the American Republican party - was surging in the polls and threatening the Conservatives, the way SNP was threatening Labour (Labour always runs strong in Scotland).  In order to bleed support from UKIP, Cameron agreed to the Brexit referendum, assuming that sober-minded Englishmen would - in the end - turn away from such a radical idea. 

Ooops.

Cameron then bolted the scene, like the posh boy coward that he is, leaving the mess for Theresa May to clean up.  May has been handed an impossible position and played it poorly.  The Fixed Parliaments Act ended the process of votes of no confidence on something like Brexit, so May was content to offer her plan - the Chequers Plan - which no one wanted, but was better than the Hard Brexit of leaving without a plan.  So the Remain forces wanted a second referendum, but the Leave forces wanted no such thing, because a second referendum could likely undo Brexit.  Meanwhile, the Irish border remains an impossible problem to solve.

May has been content to play out the clock and force the EU and the various factions in Britain to agree to a delay.  The EU could, of course, deny a request to extend the deadline (currently two weeks away). 

If the ultimately result of this process is some sort of very soft Brexit, it will likely lead to increased support for UKIP. As after all, we have seen one consistent theme these past few years, and that's the rise across the global north of white supremacy.

So the goal of Brexit - to lance the boil of UKIP on Cameron's bottom - could ultimately fail.  All while further dividing Britain and destroying the Conservative Party.