I absolutely acknowledge that people voted to leave the European Union in 2016. [Interruption.] I'm not ignoring them at all, but I don't think they voted to lose their jobs, and that is one of the consequences of crashing out of the European Union. I think that it was a very, very complicated issue, being put—. [Interruption.] No. It was a very complicated issue. Trying to put it to a referendum was—. You only have to remember how difficult it was on the doorstep to have a conversation that did not need to go on for half an hour, because it's such a complicated issue. The original disaster occurred when David Cameron decided to put this issue to a referendum as an alternative to having to put up with the split in the Conservative Party. But we are where we are, so we have to get on with the situation that we have.

There have been some benefits to the Brexit vote, and one of them is that it's lowered the value of the pound that has helped to secure our steel industry, so that is something we should all be grateful for. But that doesn't mean to say that crashing out of the European Union isn't something that nearly everybody in this Chamber would be appalled by, including, I hope, Paul Davies. So, I think that of course we need to secure the very best deal that we possibly can, and that's why we should support our Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the excellent work he's doing in the Joint Ministerial Committee to try and navigate some sort of rational behaviour by the UK Government in the way it's going to affect the devolution settlement. But I really think that we are deluding ourselves if we think that, as Members of this Chamber, we have any influence over what the UK Government is getting up to. They have far too big a problem themselves.

I feel some sympathy for Mrs May, who's had to spend two years trying to think of a way of squaring the circle in her own party, which means that, unfortunately, she hasn't had enough time to listen to what the EU-27 members have been saying really carefully. So, I do not understand—I cannot see how the UK parliamentary Conservative Party will unite behind whatever agreement Mrs May manages to achieve by way of agreement that doesn't contradict the commitments laid down in the Good Friday peace agreement. So, the only way she can avoid crashing out of the EU, which I'm sure she doesn't want to do, would be to rely on the parliamentary Labour Party and its six conditions for support. Now, I think Labour's demand for a general election is for the birds, because the Conservative Party is never going to vote for a general election before 2022, and therefore this people's vote, plebiscite, alternative referendum is actually the only way out of absolute political deadlock, which we have never seen in our lifetime, even though it may have occurred perhaps in the 1920s, 1930s.

So, we have to prepare for the possibility of some sort of referendum in order to have some resolution to the problem that is about to occur at the end of March next year—[Interruption.] It is not without risk. There is the possibility of civil unrest because passions are so high on this issue. So, those of us who are concerned about this need to do all we can between now and then to reach out to all those people who voted differently to the way that we wanted them to to ensure that—[Interruption.]—no—to ensure that we are able to have a civilised discourse on this matter on the issues that face us. I find it really difficult to understand how Welsh farmers voted to forgo 80 per cent of their income, which they got from the common agricultural policy, but it is a fact they did, so we all are to blame for not communicating clearly enough the consequences of the way we voted. People thought that this was just something we'd be able to reverse next time, just like with general elections, but we cannot—. This is a really, really serious issue. We cannot underestimate the possibility of conflict if we cannot resolve it by another means, and it seems to me that, in the absence of a general election, which I don't think will happen, some sort of plebiscite is the only way of resolving it.