Even if the leaders on both sides soften somewhat, and workable ideas are forthcoming, the political incentives for the status quo are powerful.
And some two in five back it. When asked about a time limit on the Northern Ireland backstop rather than abolition, support falls to roughly a third.
It was never possible to maintain exactly the same benefits of EU membership whilst walking away from the institutions and the rules.
Ultimately, all these questions are intensely political questions on which only the electorate can make a judgement – and now probably only in retrospect.
Don’t be so distracted by the actors – and all the talk of deselection and elections – as to miss the drama’s bigger picture.
Nor are they being entirely straight with us when they pretend they only want to stop ‘No Deal’, when in reality they want Brexit repealed entirely.
Unable to form a coherent alternative government, Johnson’s opponents place their hopes in yet another extension.
Some campaigners and commentators, particularly those who oppose Brexit, appear to have forgotten that this is a negotiation between the Government and the EU.
It is dawning on them that they may have underestimated him. Hence the newly hysterical note in their denunciations.
Plus: Brexit Derangement Syndrome sufferers have gone fully tonto due to prorogation. And three cheers for Andrew Neil.
Look at what he says, whom he idolises and the ideology that runs through his movement, and it’s a troubling picture.
What would they say if Brexiteers used the language of coups, Nazis, and spilt blood that has been so prevalent from the pro-EU camp in the last 24 hours?
Downing Street has spent the summer months diligently working through the mathematics of how to eat up as much time as possible.
Almost certainly not for the advertised year. So ministers will likely swallow any short-term frustrations or restrictions.
Gauke, Hammond, Burt and other rebels have little intellectual case for their actions; their moral or political rationale is threadbare.