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Good Morning. In these last days of our economic union with Europe, I took a road trip through Northern France, crossing via the channel tunnel at Calais. The journey had a valedictory quality; it was a sort of farewell, marking a period of history that will come to an end tomorrow. When a new date will find itself in the text books, and future school children will write essays explaining its causes and what it means. Leaving Calais – a city once ruled by the English for 200 years - we head South. Just a few miles into the flat fields of Picardy, you feel the presage of other historic events – of battles at Vimy Ridge and The Somme, and older conflicts at Agincourt and Crecy. And the various sites of treaties and truces. Including the train carriage at Compiegne, which was used to end the First World War. And then, 20 years later, to mark the occupation of Paris. When we get to Paris, we pass the Stade de France where, in a few days, English and French rugby teams will be locked in a different kind of union, smashing seven bells out of each other for 80 minutes before embracing after the game. Later, we pause before Rodin’s famous Thinker, wondering what he makes of it all while he gazes back at a bronze cast of the Burghers of Calais – who settled the 100 Years War by offering themselves as scapegoats. Back then, the English showed mercy and later erected a copy of the statue outside the Houses of Parliament; a reminder of all that pulls us together and pushes us apart. Indeed, heading back through Normandy, history continues to whisper in our ear, giving us a perspective. Look what you’ve seen, in just this stretch of land: Two World Wars, 50 years of economic union. Normans invading England. The British invading Normandy. From Domesday to D-Day. In our struggle to preserve or proclaim the distinctive features of our nation it seems we have for centuries been invading and retreating, forming unions and then divorcing. Trying to be both a part of and apart from this continent, and never permanently landing on one or the other. Near our journey’s end, we stop off at Rouen to see its beautiful cathedral. This place is a physical reminder of another kingdom. One which transcends national boundaries. A kingdom in which people of all nations are included. A symbol of a different kind of country, where people experience a different kind of sovereignty. At Calais, we reach the tunnel that takes us back to our island home, and it feels that the witness and testimony of all this history has confirmed something: although we are a nation set apart – by geography – we have always been, and still are, a part of something much bigger.