Just wondering: is there anyone out there who actually remembers supporting Turkish membership of the EU? Last night Sadiq Khan said the Brexit camp had been scaremongering with its ‘big fat lie’ that Turkey would join any time soon. (NB: Sadiq was a bit free with the ‘lie’ word; a generation ago, its use would have caused real offence; two generations ago he’d have been called out by the person he accused of being a liar. Ruth Davidson was more measured with her use of ‘untruth’.) And Boris Johnson did look a bit abashed, though his retort (‘I am a Turk’) got lost in the exchanges. For he too was one of the most eloquent supporters of the Turkish bid when he was editor of this paper.
But back in 2005 when Jack Straw, as Foreign Secretary, saw to it that Turkey was accepted as a candidate nation, everyone, but everyone, was in favour, from the Telegraph to the Tablet and including, I am sorry to say, The Spectator, plus all the major political parties ie, everyone except Ukip.
I remember vividly a BBC Radio 4 reporter at the time dismissing opponents of the move as those who wanted to keep the EU ‘a Christian club’ – and you should have heard the contempt in his voice.
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