---

European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am not sure why the hon. Gentleman made that intervention, because there has never been a problem with seceding. We can talk about the details, but the reality is that nation states have always had the right to secede whenever they want, just by getting rid of the Act that brought them into the EU. I am not sure what he is saying; is he saying that the EU could have held on to us? If he is, and the EU is now giving us permission to secede, the situation is beginning to sound a little bit like the situation that faced the federal United States, and the battle between the confederacy and—