Two years on, and the Brexit debate is still dominated by the two extremes shouting at each other
Not every Leave voter punched the air when the referendum result came through, and not all Remain voters sunk to the floor with their heads in their hands.
And yet, more than two years on from that dramatic night, the loudest voices in this debate are still the two extremes. Flick through the news channels and you'll catch snippets of Labour's Andrew Adonis demanding Brexit be stopped (and calling for a public inquiry into how it could have happened) along with glimpses of backbench Tories and hard-Brexit advocates telling us, implausibly, that a No Deal exit would be a walk in the park.
The campaign for a second referendum is up and running – cloaked in the language of democracy but with a very clear purpose: to undo what democracy delivered in 2016. On the other side of the aisle, hardcore Brexiters are fumbling and stumbling in a last-ditch effort to present an alternative plan to the Prime Minister's Chequers proposal.
Everyone else (we could call them the squeezed middle) watches as the remnants of two campaigning sides continue to shout at each other, 27 months after one side lost and the other won. Narrowly. That slim margin of victory matters.
As Leaver Dan Hannan has said, and as Remainer Tory MP Simon Hart now echoes, the referendum did not settle a debate; it exposed a divide. The task of Brexit, therefore, is as much about bringing the country back together as it is about extricating the UK from the European Union.
A second referendum, whatever it's called (“People's Vote”) would generate fresh waves of uncertainty, amplify the voices of the two extremes and shatter the notion that voting matters. It is an idea that must be put to bed. Similarly, as Hart says, Brexit is a process – not an event.
It will take time. It will involve compromise. It will not satisfy everyone. But it will happen, and those mounting a last stand against it – whether publicly or in secret – should direct their efforts, time and resources to the task of engineering an exit, a transition period and a good deal for our future relationship with the EU.
Fortunately – better late than never – the newly formed Brexit Delivery Group, comprising of 60 Leave and Remain Tory MPs, will now be making this case. All power to them.
As Hart wrote over the weekend, "we should bank what we can now, leave the EU in March and continue to grind away at the bits that fall short of expectation. That’s what we do in business every day and what has typified our relationship with the EU for more than 40 years."