Article 50...

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What is article 50?

Formally notifying the European Council the intention to withdraw from the EU .

UK officials have been delaying it, allegedly until the end of the year, first cause of Cameron's resignation and then, I can assume, to reach a political agreement as to how the British State will negotiate the departure.

In some respects, this is a wise thing to do because The British Government and the European Council need to draft the terms and conditions under which it will happen, which will most likely go through having to neutralize hardliners in both sides, namely the ones in Europe wanting to punish the British decision by economical means and the ones in UK wanting to basically kick out immigrants as soon as possible.

Naturally, negotiating future things such as the possibility of a free trade agreement as a way for UK to maintain ties with the European Common Market (which is pretty much the only reason why it joined the EU in the first place) and the situation of EU citizens working in UK, the relocation of some companies and economic entities from UK to a EU member state, etc, all will go into those talks.

Even then, the process will take about 2 years, from the invocation of Article 50, so delaying indefinitely is not a good thing. Markets around the world and the British currency have also been hit quite a bit by the uncertainty, so there's another reason to do it soonish.

As to whether it should happen or will happen, I say it has to. I find it ridiculous that half of the people get to decide to get out, with no statistically significant difference (52 vs 48? Please) but the referendum accepts a simple majority, so there you go. For the British government to go against that and dismiss it (which it can, the referendum is non-binding) would be unwise.

But, the hardliners that want to see UK fully outside of Europe and happily isolated like the good old days before the world wards, won't and must not get their way either. It would be ridiculous for the government to yield to these kind of "out" voters considering, for instance, that EU is still UK's major trading partner. And it's not like Britain has a colonial empire from which to draw resources anymore.

For better or for worse, no one will get everything they wanted. I predict, if people are smart, that UK and EU will remain tied at least economically. I can hope that UK officials will placate hardliners by showing that UK can negotiate the room for maneuvering it wants outside of EU restrictions. If people are also smart on the other side, they would crack down a bit on the problems that lead to the UK referendum in the first place, namely easying up some trade restrictions, tone down the political merge and give more space of action to individual members and finding better ways to deal with the immigrant crisis. All of this to retain other members and keeping them from threatening the same in order to gain leverage.