Could France happen here? There seems no desperation to which hard Brexiters will not turn in alternative “project fear”. Yes, feelings are running high. Yes, people on both sides will feel lied to and cheated, whatever the outcome when some deal is finally reached. But rioting down Regent Street, punch-ups in Parliament Square, tanks on the Thames bridges? I think not.

Emmanuel Macron’s attempts radically to reform his arthritic economy were always going to be tough. Nicolas Sarkozy attempted the same neo-Thatcherite programme and encountered the same crisis of authority. France’s labour relations, its entrenched interests and its deep divide between far-right populists and the old elite, have created fault lines across which there is little debate. France is even more polarised than Britain. Its assembly lacks the raucous unreliability of Britain’s Commons. Its media lacks diversity. It has always seemed to lack the conduits of compromise.

It would be implausible to see violence arising from parliament performing its duty

Throughout France’s history, its political crises have been enacted on the streets of Paris, to the glee of revolutionaries everywhere. From the turmoils of the 18th and 19th centuries to the demise of Charles de Gaulle after 1968, a mystique has attached to the barricade and the molotov cocktail, the burning car and the charging riot police. Last week, Macron read the runes on the Arc de Triomphe and capitulated. He negotiated with riot leaders.

British politics has never defaulted to the streets. From the Gordon Riots to electoral reform, from the general strike to the poll tax, there may be protests, but great issues are resolved in parliament. In 1848, Parisians died in the streets for revolution, and failed to achieve it. In Britain a gathering of Chartists sent a petition to parliament in a cab because of the rain. It was not a riot that ended the poll tax but a constitutional change of leader.

Play Video 1:45 Riot police use teargas and water cannon in clashes with gilets jaunes in Paris – video report

There would undoubtedly be a strong, and justified, reaction to a decision of parliament simply to ignore the referendum result (as happened in France in 2005, with no riots). There might be anger at a referendum rerun, though voters could hardly complain if offered the option of the same outcome. It would be implausible to see violence arising from parliament performing its duty, to interpret the referendum result as it sees fit in the national interest.

Britain remains deeply divided – on Brexit as on many other things. But few people outside the wilder shores of the Tory party really want “no deal”. The art of politics is that of compromise, and the compromises that must surround the UK’s formal withdrawal from the EU, whatever the fall-back, were always going to be tortuous and nitpicking. When a deal is reached, as it will be, the reaction on the streets will not be burnt cars and smashed windows. It will be a giant sigh of relief.

• Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist