Nobody knows. Britain invoked Article 50 of the EU Charter in March 2017 which means that if all went according to schedule we would leave on 29 March this year.
Yep, it's getting that tight.
And yet, it could still be moved further out, or a second referendum called, or (most unlikely situation) Brexit could be scrapped altogether. Nobody knows. It's impossible to call.
For now, the date of departure is 29 March, but Parliament is in such disarray nothing is predictable.
Having rejected Theresa May's planned "deal" with the EU a couple of weeks ago by the largest majority in Parliamentary history (a thumping defeat by more than 250 votes), her "Plan B" is now to go back to Brussels and make the same demands that she's made at least 8 times already, and have been rejected by the EU on every occasion, and which they immediately told her last night are not up for negotiation. And today she is still persisting with the line that "Europe will blink first."
The major sticking point is over the Irish border. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is Britain's only land border with the EU and if Britain leaves the EU and trades under WTO rules, it will be mandatory (not optional mandatory) to create a hard border for the purpose of controlling movement between the countries and collecting customs revenues.
This, however, would mean compromising the Good Friday Agreement which ended the IRA terrorist campaign that lasted more than thirty years. The government of Northern Ireland and the Irish Dail will not countenance a hard border and a return to terrorism, which Irish groups are darkly hinting at. A hard border will almost certainly bring about a return to civil unrest and terrorism.
The Westminster government says it is determined to prevent a hard border being imposed but the only method of doing this would be for Northern Ireland to remain in a customs union with the EU after Brexit.
But this has a sting in the tail. It would mean creating an invisible border down the middle of the Irish Sea, meaning goods and people coming in from NI would have to pass through border controls and customs on landing in England or Wales. Effectively, this would make Northern Ireland a separate country from Britain, something Irish Unionists will not agree to. Unity must mean unity.
The majority party in NI, the Democratic Unionists will not tolerate a border down the Irish Sea and the Conservative Party need their votes in Parliament to prop up their minority government. The Conservative government cannot go against the wishes of the DUP, and they won't budge on it.
The EU have offered a "Backstop" arrangement keeping NI in the customs union indefinitely, although they have indicated that they would be willing to withdraw from that if a technological solution could be found to ensure customs rules were followed, and didn't involve a hard border. Such technology is, in theory, feasible, but doesn't exist at the moment and would be many, many years in the developing... and nobody has yet come up with any way in which it can be created, let alone started to develop.
The Brexiters, however, see an Irish backstop as a "betrayal" of Brexit. According to them, we must leave... lock, stock and barrel. No concessions to the EU whatsoever which means no customs union and no backstop. And apparently, we will just stick two fingers up at the WTO and tell them to stick their hard border where the sun doesn't shine.
Yeah, that's really going to go down well with WTO countries in trade negotiations. According to Brexiters though, the world needs us more than we need them. They'll give in when we tell them what we want. In the words of Tory MP Dominic Raab, "This will be the easiest trade deal in history."
We were also told that by 29 March this year, Britain would have 40 global trade deals lined up ready to sign as the Union Flag comes down in Brussells. To date, there are none.
Theresa May set the "No Hard Border" down as one of her "Red Lines That I Will Not Cross". in her Mansion House speech of 2016.
The EU have said they will listen to new proposals from Westminster. When Parliament rejected the "deal", Jean Claude Junker (chief EU negotiator) said "We know what the British do not want. Now we want them to tell us what they DO want."
The only solution Theresa May can come up with is to go back to Brussels to demand what she's demanded all along. No hard border, and a customs union with the EU dictated from Westminster that Britain can withdraw from without giving notice regardless of Brussell's wishes.
Needless to say, today Junker ruled that out "categorically".
The Europeans are getting thoroughly sick of the British. There was anger in the EU Parliament today and as the Dutch minister told the house that his country would not accede to British demands, Nigel Farage sat in his seat laughing his head off.
What a plank.
There are more nuances to this situation that would take far longer to relate on here than even I could put in a post.
When the history books are written on this shameful, disgraceful episode in our history, Theresa May will own Brexit. I could say this is her Watergate in terms of shaming, but it's worse than that. Nixon was a crook, but May is an incompetent ideologist who is determined to drive her Brexit through regardless of the cost to the country in terms of business, international reputation and the well being of the people. She is an ideological fundamentalist as dedicated to her cause as any muslim fanatic.
To her, the cost is unimportant. All that matters to her is that Brexit MUST happen, regardless of the effect it has on the country. And she has the backing of her party, which she puts above the interests of the nation.
Already businesses are deserting UK in large numbers. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have already gone and more will follow. Britain has the lowest rate of growth in Europe, inflation is on the rise and those EU workers who came here.... and who we need to do the jobs that Britons consider themselves too precious to do, but have to be done, are returning to the continent in droves.
And yet..... if there WERE a second referendum, the mindset of the older generation of British people towards Europe (principally, the French and Germans, who they despise with a passion) means that Brexit might actually win..!!
Brexit could lead to a united Ireland.... certainly the break up of the United Kingdom of Scotland and England, and the loss of Gibraltar if the Spanish get heavy and close the border thus preventing thousands of Gibraltarians from working in Spain. Gibraltar voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU and yet Westminster has ignored their interests completely. Their interests are nothing more than collateral damage as far as the Tory fanatics are concerned. And they're feeling pretty betrayed and angry about it.
Argentina is lobbying all the South American nations to insist that if Britain attempts to woo them with trade deals, then sovereignty of the Falkland Islands must be put on the negotiationg table. Spain, which has influence in South America, is putting its weight behind this lobbying. It seems pretty certain that if it meant getting trade for England and Wales, Westminster would sell the Falklanders out without batting an eyelid.
I've not even scratched the surface of the consequences of Brexit. We have antagonised the Europeans almost to breaking point. They claim they are not setting out to punish Britain for leaving.
But if this is what happens when they're trying to be co-operative, God help us if they do decide to flex their muscles.