Sunday, May 22, 2016

Turkey on the menu.

So Turkey is on the menu again.  Can we or can we not put a red card up to Turkey joining the EU?

Well, to be honest, it depends who you listen to.  And that is the problem.  There are various interpretations of what the UK could and could not do.

But our prime minister David Cameron has said claims the UK would not be able to block Turkey joining the EU are "very misleading", insisting the UK retains a veto.  So he didn’t say it wasn’t true.  Just very misleading.

Something is either misleading or it’s not.  So to be very misleading says something different.  It’s saying, well, it’s partially not misleading but substantially it is very misleading.  So, what are the bits that are not misleading?  It is usually just a useful phrase for not telling the truth. 

Defence minister Penny Mordaunt said the migrant crisis would hasten talks over Turkey's EU bid and the UK was powerless to stop it.  The EU referendum was the "only chance" for the UK to have its say, she said.

It would be "literally decades" before Turkey was ready to join, Mr Cameron retorted.  But when has that stopped the EU doing something before it was ready and right to do so?   Let’s see, the EURO, yip, that was one.  That ended in a shambles and unemployment and poverty for millions across the euro zone, though not in the UK as you may have noticed.

Encouraging the Ukraine to look to joining the EU and wave a red matadors cape at Moscow?  Yip that was another.  I could go on.  Not a particularly good track record one would have to say.

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