Thread by @StuartLothian

10 mths on from a rash, premature, totally unplanned #Article50 trigger, we still await clarity as to what #Brexit might mean? But HMG has now confirmed what we knew 19 mths back - Brexit remains totally unaffordable! We've spent a fortune to establish that simple & obvious fact!

Have known from the off that Brexit must be halted: 1.Our negotiating position was weakened by #A50 trigger, not strengthened. 2.Obvious from day 1 that ANY form of Brexit would be totally unaffordable - as we have 5x more debt since 1997 and run a huge visible trade imbalance.

- 3.UK has a dominant services sector (incl financial services) and stands to lose disproportionately MORE than any other of the EU27, from leaving the SM & CU. 4.Our overall productivity also lags the G20 norm, not a good 'go-it-alone' platform!

The above macro economic issues have been in the public domain since BEFORE #Euref vote. Since then, things have worsened for many, if not most, firms & consumers. @hmtreasury & @bankofengland KNOW all this, as do @The_TUC & @cbicarolyn, So why does #HMG persist with insanity?

Clear since Day 1 that May has badly bungled Brexit! There's NO plan NO strategy NO concept of exit costs or social/ financial/ reputational damage! It's only a disunited opposition that's keeping her in post. This is now 'way beyond a national disgrace' and totally cringeworthy!

Had May grasped the full complexity of risks & costs BEFORE Lancaster House (at the latest!) and given a polar opposite speech 'that day', ££££billions could have been saved. As it is, she has put UK on the road to nowheresville, from which the comeback will be equally costly!

So what's the plan now? Keep running to China, or the USA? HMG's own intelligence reports downplay the economic significance of either, or both, in terms of net near term positive trade value to UK. Will we really blow the balance of our #A50 notice period chasing pipe dreams?

Have appealed to @Number10gov @theresa_may @jeremycorbyn @hmtreasury @The_TUC @cbicarolyn @lucyfrazermp + many others, on numerous occasions, to NO avail! Next, will humbly advise what MUST be done NOW to avert the Brexit crisis which will otherwise ensue to our collective pain.

As promised - Omens for a good Brexit deal are not positive. Exit costs have been sized & are 'completely unaffordable'. #A50 notice expiry is very tight! UK is totally fractured. A #FinalSayForAll is the ONLY way to fix this impasse, one way or another! It's the ONLY way out!

UKIP (aka Tory "provos") scared Cameron into granting an #Euref. The deeply flawed outcome left a vacuum. May has badly cocked up her part! The only way out NOW is to finish this matter with a #FinalSayForALL. Nothing else will do! People empowered this, they must ratify, or not!

Although our Houses of Parliament are at last starting to peer through dogma into the devilish detail of Brexit and all its costs & consequences, it is surely inconceivable? that Remainers will accept anything less than a #FinalSayForAll -after the last 19 months of abject chaos!

If the gross national embarrassment of Brexit's sordid shambolic saga is allowed to drag on unchecked (as it has for 19 months!) we'll simply run out of time to resolve major matters in a way that doesn't leave the UK totally trashed out! We NEED #FinalSayForALL #StopBrexit2018

Every. Single. Aspect. of UK's handling of Brexit, from its genesis until 'now', has been a 'Gross National Embarrassment'! If the last 19 months of Mad & Murderous Mayhem leads to her premature departure? We will have been royally f@cked for NO BENEFIT WHATSOEVER! -thread ends.