"it was not until a week AFTER Brexit that they first said the UK would have to leave the EU and THEN negotiate a trade deal" Not I am really interested, but the EU has rules. A referendum is not legally binding (see ours in France), so until UK officially declares UK is out by going for Article 50, nothing can be done. You can't expel a country from EU, even if politicians try to persuade Greece they could.
Then it is in the interest of every body NOT to speed-up the process, because all treaties signed by EU with UK in it will become non-applicable.
And for this as well:
https://youtu.be/uyyOyoeqKfM