Sounds to me like you're saying the UK could end up being held hostage against its scheduled, voluntary, legal exit from a cooperation it joined in 1973 with full assurances that it would always have the option of leaving.
"hostage" is a ridiculous way of putting it. Both the things I mentioned are purely self-inflicted: the UK government doesn't have to contemplate deporting EU nationals, and does not have to mouth off over Gibraltar.
Leaving the EU means leaving the benefits of the EU, and Brexiters have generally refused to acknowledge what those benefits were while simultanously complaining when they might be withdrawn.
I'm sure som brexiters have. Those I know, and pro exit folks in various other EU countries, my humble self not excluded, are very well aware of potential costs and downsides. We are not idiots and escatologists, however much remainers may wish to paint us that way.
