//Why would you pretend not to have a preference between Brexit being an overall success or a failure?//
It depends how you measure success (or failure). My measure of success is that we are no longer EU members. It is an organisation we should never have joined and the only reason we remained in it for so long was in the hope that at some point it would do us some overall good. It never really did and was never likely to. Plus, of course, the longer we remained in, the more entangled we became with that wretched institution and the more difficult it became to leave.
What the country needs now is a government that will take advantage of our non-membership instead of a government and a Civil Service which continues to hanker after membership. Then it will be a success. However, we're not likely to get that any time soon so any failure to take advantage of Brexit is a government failure because they have to deal with things as they are, not as they'd like them to be.
//The huge impact it has had on all aspects of UK life can hardly be 'forgotten' and people can't just 'get on with it', as it impacts most people's lives on a daily basis.//
It does not impact on my life on a daily basis. In fact, I don’t think it has had any impact on my life at all in a practical sense (principally because the last six years have been wasted arguing the toss about what to do next). But it has had a huge impact on my personal satisfaction because we are no longer members – and I’m immensely pleased about that.
//I can only assume you are independently wealthy have staff to do your shopping and don't rely on exporting goods as your main source of income :-)//
I am not independently wealthy nor do I have staff to shop for me. Brexit has not affected my income (nor that of most people in the UK) and why having staff to shop for me would shelter me from any effects of Brexit is a little hard to fathom.
//Wouldn't trying to make it work include examining other possible relationships with the EU? //
It would, but the EU doesn’t do “other possible relationships” (as Switzerland is discovering).
//There was no mandate for a hard Brexit, remember.//
I don’t recall being asked what type of Brexit I wanted. I said I wanted the UK to leave and by leave I meant no longer being bound by any of its institutions. Anybody who voted to leave should have appreciated that’s what leaving a club means. But I will ask this (as I usually do when this issue is raised): what type of a “soft remain” do you think there would have been had the result been 52:48 to remain? What concessions would have been made to appease the disappointed losers?
//I doubt many small business owners can afford to agree with your principled stand.//
Possibly not. But they should have prepared for the worst instead of listening to the claptrap spouted by various politicians after the referendum. It was quite obvious that the EU would make life as difficult as possible for UK businesses because it is a protectionist organisation that welcomes no competition from outside the bloc. Fine if you only want to trade on sensible terms with members of the bloc. Not too clever if you want to shop elsewhere.