There is a film that is very popular at the moment in cinemas. It's called Stan & Ollie. I'm reminded of the catchphrase that that comedy pairing had: 'This is another fine mess you've gotten me into.' And what a fine mess we are in as a result of what has happened at Westminster. The reality is this: the Prime Minister said to Britain, 'I have a deal; the deal is all there is—it's this deal or no deal.' And now she is saying, 'Well, forget I said that; I'm now going to go back to the EU'—who, incidentally, don't want to talk to the UK—'and get a better deal.' It's a sign of weakness. I must remember, next time I buy a car, to go back the following day and say, 'Actually, I now want to renegotiate the price, because I'm not happy with the price I paid in the first place.' Michel Barnier said to me in July last year, 'The problem I have is the UK doesn't know what it wants,' and that's exactly the problem we face now. And could I remind Members that no party in 2017 stood on a basis of exiting the EU with no deal? The problem we have is that in 2016 the referendum was based on an idea, not a plan. Nobody could say with certainty what would happen if people voted to leave. And that means, of course, that there will be some in this Chamber who will interpret the vote as saying it is a vote for leaving the EU on whatever terms, even if it means no deal, and there's no way of disproving that. There are others, like me, who advocate that people didn't vote on the single market or the customs union; I didn't hear that on the doorstep. There's no way of disproving that either. So, how are we to get past this impasse? We know, in 2017, people rejected a hardish Brexit in the general election, so we know they don't want to go down that line. 

I'm troubled, Llywydd, at the cavalier attitude—probably the right phrase, given what Mick Antoniw has just said—that is taken towards Ireland. The reality is that, in the referendum campaign, Ireland wasn't mentioned because people forgot the border was there. I didn't, because I'm familiar with that border, and what I can say is this: that border is impossible to police, there are more than 200 crossing points, smuggling has been endemic for many, many years, and it is a place where there was great conflict. When you crossed that border in the early 1990s, you crossed into Newry, and you would see helicopters zigzagging across the sky because there was a fear they would be shot down. Belfast had a helicopter in the air all day long and all night long, there was a ring of steel around the city, and people were being shot on a regular basis. More than 3,000 people were killed as a result of the 25 years of conflict brought to an end in 1998. We toy with that agreement at our peril, and it disappoints me when I hear some, perhaps not in this Chamber but outside, who take the view that this is some kind of small problem that could easily be resolved. I ask the question: what are these alternative arrangements that we have been told exist, because for the past two years none have been found? There is no border anywhere in the world that is governed by a system that relies solely on the use of technology, and the reason for that is this: it doesn't exist. And so saying, 'Let's go back and find alternative arrangements' is simply a way of putting off the inevitable for a fortnight, and that's a fortnight we do not have, both as a nation here in Wales, nor as the UK. 

So, now we're in a position where we're looking to talk to people who won't talk to us about arrangements that we have no idea what they look like and nor does anyone else, and all at the behest, all at the behest, of 10 Members of Parliament representing the DUP—one section, but 36 per cent of the population in Northern Ireland; very much the tail wagging the dog. They say, 'Well, look, we want to make sure that there's no regulatory difference between GB and Northern Ireland.' Well, that doesn't apply for abortion, that doesn't apply for civil partnerships. It's picking and choosing what you want. The reality is that the political establishment have had a blind spot for Ireland and now, of course, they find that that is the one issue that is taking up so much time.

I can't take lessons from the Conservative Party because, for eight years, they did not accept the result of the 1997 referendum. In 2005, they stood on a manifesto that said, 'We want another referendum'. If it was okay then—