Turkey gets it, so why doesn't the Tory Party?

Vienna's Die Presse has an article about Turkey's attitude to the EU that should be compulsory reading at the FO. Translated by those helpful folk over at Presseurop.eu it starts pretty baldly,

One day Turkey will run the EU

OK, got your attention?

"When Turkey becomes a member of the EU, it is not going to be in a secondary position, that's one of the reasons why countries like Germany and France are quite nervous about our membership," Turkish vice-premier Ali Babacan declared at a World Leadership Forum in New York during the recent UN plenary session.

The thing is you see he is right. And the article goes on to explain why. Demographically, economically, geographically and so on.

At present, Turkey is the 17th biggest economy in the world. Experts predict that in 20 years it will make the top ten, outstripping countries like Spain and Italy. According to forecasts by the IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis) and the Vienna Institute of Demography, the Turkish population will be around 85.5 million by then – surpassing Germany, now the most populous nation in the EU.

If Turkey were to be admitted into the EU despite resistance from countries like Austria, Germany and France, it would dominate policy in the EU institutions. Even as things are today, Turkey would be the second biggest political force in the European Parliament and on an equal footing with the heavyweights on the EU Council.

Although the EU power structure will have to be gradually adjusted under the rules of the Lisbon Treaty, not much would change for Turkey. By dint of its rapid demographic growth, Ankara’s influence would actually increase, since the number of seats in Parliament and the new representation ratios in the Council will essentially be based on population size

So just get this straight, the Government tells us that it is uncomfortable with greater and greater EU power. It says that it wants to protect and even increase UK power in the EU. But it fully supports Turkey's accession to the EU, which would be dint of the basic rules governing the club reduce our power at the table.

Go figure.

Now they might say that Turkey is likely to be more pro US, more pro free trade than many of the countries of old Europe. But can they really be so confident? The growth of political Islam in that country and recent noises by the Erdogan government (the constitutonal referendum for one) suggests to me that the current position that Turkey holds on these matters are friable.

The article also points to Gerhard Schroeder in die Welt,

“Without Turkey the EU will sink into mediocrity,” writes the Social Democrat ex-chancellor, pointing to the rapid pace of growth there: this year alone the Turkish economy will grow four times as much as the French and twice as much as the German economy. Schröder expects Turkey to be the fourth or fifth biggest European economy in 20 years. Then there will be no ignoring it.

It will if our Government have anything to say the Turkey, not the Elephant in the room.

Schaerbeeck looting

Wandered down to my local Turkish corner shop last night to pick up that local staple, the spit-roast chicken, and witnessed what I can only describe as a looting. Mehmet, the storekeeper came out to unhook the fowl from the roaster, and as he was concentrating on his efforts to serve me a small fleet of six gypsy women slipped into the shop.

Each was about five foot tall and four foot wide and swathed in velvet drapes, sequined scarves and those elderly dun coloured coats. Mehmet looked up, made a noise of apology and shot back into the shop. I followed him in to see an extraordinary scene.

Mehmet’s 15 year old son had been cornered by two of the women who were rattling imprecations and complaints at him; whilst the other four had split up. Each pair worked as a team as one had a large grey-pink plastic washing bowls, already overflowing like gutter cornucopia, whilst the other shoveled in tins, and plastic oddments.

Mehmet stood, blocking the door and called out,

“So you are going to pay for all that?”

Instantly the four without bowls turned on him and crowding him poured forth a torrent of invective. Meanwhile the two with bowls dumped the spoils on the floor behind a great heap of figs and dates and, as if at a command all six swept out of the shop acting in concert like a Spithead review.

As Mehmet stood their breathing deeply I noted that the whole thing had taken less than two minutes.

Interestingly, when he had caught his breath and calmed down his son he blamed EU enlargement for the problem. “When it was just France, Germany, Belgium Holland, there were no problems, but now it happens all the time”, he told me. “We should never have let the Bulgarians and Romanians in, all those Roma, its impossible to run a business these days”.