"Clearly we should stop the clock on Article 50 until we're ready to continue."
An excellent plan sir except for one small detail.
There is no provision to "stop the clock" on Article 50.
If May's goal in calling this election really was to "get a stronger mandate from the British people" then the honest thing to do is to have another election, since her mandate is considerably weaker. Y'know, "the only poll that counts."
Fortunately Germany will be having an election this September, which suggests there is a window where the UK could have another shot at forming a government with an actual absolute majority.
This would demand decisive action by the Conservatives and acceptance they might lose outright, but place whoever did win (assuming an absolute majority this time) in a stronger position. IOW doing what's right for the UK, not necessarily the Conservative party.
I'm joking of course.
This whole situation has been driven by Tory party leadership being so terrified of UKIP that it put its survival above anything so trivial as a 40YO+ trade agreement with the largest, closest trading block the UK deals with. Does self interest come much more blatant than that?
IRL there is (apparently) a provision to extend the deadline.
It requires all other EU countries to agree to do so.
27 way negotiations to get such an extension are likely to be quite challenging and require a very determined British effort to achieve ("Send lawyers, guns and money," as the late Warren Zevon put it). :-(
In hindsight it would seem obvious that the first question you should ask if you're planning to run a "Presidential" style campaign based on your candidates personality is to check they actually have one. :-(
I think there's some irony in the fact that AFAIK neither May nor Corbyn were ever anyone's first choice for anything. The difference is I don't think Corbyn was that ambitious, but has risen to the occasion, while May was but has been exposed as well, not much, although with a nice dress sense.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
