We are making the argument on sane, solid criteria, Nigel, trying to get the blinkers off the millions who were hoodwinked by xenophobic lies and vacuous fiscal promises. Stage One is to get the referendum decision abandoned. Stage Two, if Stage One fails, is out of our hands. And out of yours, as you'll see. Nearly half a billion of them against sixty million of us. They'll survive quite well without our already-weak economy and with large sections of what used to be our services sector shifted to Paris and Berlin. Never mind. Rule Britannia! Narrower and narrower WILL our bounds be set!

The lessons of history, Iains, were what set the European project on its way after WW1 and WW2, the aim being to prevent Hitlerism from ever holding sway in Europe again and to replace it very firmly with international cooperation in trade and free movement and insistence on democracy and the rule of law in every member state. It's worked so far. No third pan-European war and no prospect of one on the horizon. So much for your Hitler allusion, eh? Of course, to learn the lessons of history you have to know some history in the first place. Would you like me to recommend some textbooks to you?