Thread by @uk_domain_names

There is a poverty of thought afflicting politics at the moment.

It is acceptable for people not to be fully informed about Brexit. Let's face it, it's generally dull, with esoteric arguments, a lot of "ifs" and "maybes", plus a cacophony of voices on both sides of the debate.

But politicians are different. MPs have pledged to uphold a Code of Conduct that means they have to put the interests of the nation as a whole, and those of their constituents, above all other considerations. Brexit fails on both those counts. But it gets worse. They have also

pledged to make decisions based on merit. And the merits of Brexit are few, and vastly overshadowed by the damage it will cause to the UK economy (as evidenced in today's Government report) and our collective futures.

Now here's where my original complaint comes in: politicians aren't just "people". They don't get to bunk off when the decisions get a bit complicated, the arguments a bit convoluted. Not when faced with the most important choice that has ever had to be made in peacetime.

Furthermore, they have full access to hundreds of impact assessments, preparedness documents, the transcripts of fact-finding sessions and Select Committee appearances, thousands of HOC briefing papers, plus a ton of stuff we mere mortals will never get to see because it's

covered by confidentiality, NDAs etc. Many of them also have staff or researchers to help, especially if they're Ministers or shadow ministers, plus the full force of the Civil Service, over 9,000 of whom are working full-time on Brexit.

So there is. No. Excuse. None. Whatsoever.

As an MP, you can't be too busy for Brexit. You can't be too confused for Brexit. You can't be too tired of Brexit. You can't abdicate your responsibility over Brexit.

Brexit is all. It is the first thing you should be thinking about

in the morning, and the last thing you bed down to at night. Brexit should haunt your dreams. Everything else this or future Governments want to achieve boils down to "do we have the money to pay for that", whether it's strengthening the NHS, increasing police numbers,

tackling crime, improving mental health, stamping out homelessness, or any one of the hundreds of other causes, issues and concerns that you went into politics to affect.

Because that's why you're an MP, right? To make a difference. To change the world (hopefully for the better)

So listen, read, watch, learn. Talk to your colleagues in your party and across the aisle. Educate yourself to the real facts of Brexit, not the easy pre-digested soundbites dished up by the tabloids and those on the extreme right who just want to tear everything down and

build a new and scarier world, free of annoying little constraints like human rights, environmental protections or working time directives.

We have staggered through a decade of austerity and, just as the first chink of light is beginning to show at the end of the tunnel, Brexit

threatens to plunge us into darkness unending.

There is another way. A difficult way. A brave way. A frankly frightening way.

And that is to look at the evidence, the facts, the reality of Brexit. Make the hard decision for the country, and for the people you were elected to

represent. Think, and think again.

Then walk away. Admit that, after £4.2 billion and millions of collective hours spent trying to deliver Brexit, a "good" Brexit is a contradiction in terms.

It's either that, or shut your eyes, cover your ears, and hope for the best.

But hope can't influence fact, any more than belief, wishes, patriotism, willpower or bloodymindedness can (a vote can no more change facts than it can make someone win the lottery). Facts just ARE.

And the facts of Brexit are that it will be a disaster.

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