Racegoers in the royal enclosure in the parade ring on the second day of the Royal Ascot horse race meeting in Ascot, England, Wednesday, June 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)
Racegoers in the royal enclosure in the parade ring on the second day of the Royal Ascot horse race meeting in Ascot, England, Wednesday, June 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Tim Ireland) Credit: ap — Tim Ireland

London — It was two years ago this week that Britain voted in a historic referendum to leave the European Union. And by now, Brexit was supposed to be pretty far along, with “quick” negotiations starting to yield beautiful trade deals and the glimmer of independence. But this uncoupling is turning out to be far more difficult and acrimonious than promised.

Nigel Farage, the politician, radio showman and arch-Brexiteer, tweeted a cartoon this week showing frustrated Britons, some with “Leave” buttons and others with “Remain” buttons, shouting as one, “For heaven’s sake, get on with it!”

British leaders — both in the governing Conservative Party and the Labour Party opposition — apparently can’t get on with it, though, because they can’t agree what “it” is.

A stubborn three-way divide over Brexit persists nine months before it is supposed to go into effect, between supporters of a hard, clean divorce with the European Union and a soft, fuzzy separation — followed by a third alternative, all those who want a do-over in a repeat referendum (these folks don’t want any Brexit at all).

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May narrowly survived a crunch vote, fending off a second attempt by Westminster’s unelected second chamber, the House of Lords, to push through an amendment that would give Parliament the power — “a meaningful vote” is the term of art — to stop Brexit in the case that May and Brussels fail to ink a deal.

May cheered the passage of an “EU withdrawal bill,” without the constraining amendment, as “an important step in delivering the Brexit people voted for, a Brexit that gives Britain a brighter future, a Britain in control of its money, laws and borders.”

In a statement, she said that the day’s votes “show people in the UK, and to the EU, that the elected representatives in this country are getting on with the job, and delivering on the will of the British people.”

Yet May hasn’t been able to get support from her own Cabinet on what a Brexit deal should look like, and she is oceans away from meeting the demands of the EU.

Next week, she is headed back to Brussels for what was previously billed as make-or-break negotiating session with European leaders but will now be much less. Her team delayed the publication of a blueprint on the future U.K.-EU relations until July, or whenever, because her Cabinet cannot agree.

European officials now say the Brexit deal is unlikely to be hammered out until October, maybe November — alternatively, before Christmas.