Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: Erdogan’s Europe

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Has Erdogan brought Europe to heel? In his Spectator cover piece, Douglas Murray argues that the Turkish President has used a mixture of intimidation, threats and blackmail to do just that and throw open the doors of Europe to Turkey. Douglas says Erdogan is a ‘wretched Islamist bully’ who has shown just how the EU works. But in pushing Europe around, is Erdogan now more powerful than Merkel, Juncker and Cameron? And how does the Turkish PM’s resignation this week changed the country’s relationship with the EU? Isabel Hardman speaks to Rem Korteweg, from the Centre for European Reform.

Speaking on the podcast, Rem says:

‘There has been tremendous back-sliding under Erdogan. There is no country in the world with as many journalists in jail as in Turkey. The independence of the judiciary is highly-questioned. And this is all part of Erdogan’s plan to create a Presidential system with him at the top.’

Meanwhile, Britain went to the polls this week. The results are back and Labour suffered a bad night in Scotland where the Scottish Tories surged into second place. Ukip did well in Wales but there was some joy for Jeremy Corbyn with Sadiq Khan’s success in London. James Forsyth, Spectator editor Fraser Nelson and Marcus Roberts from YouGov join Isabel to give their verdicts on the results.

And finally, is Leicester’s Premiership title win really the fairy tale it’s cracked up to be? Roger Alton says we’ve all had the wool pulled over our eyes. He argues that Leicester are the biggest bunch of lump-it-long, kick-it-high players since Leeds in the seventies.

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