Ankara is ignoring the terms of the migration deal – but 75 million Turks look set to get visa-free access to Schengen regardless.
“For Britain, voting to leave will be a galvanising, liberating, empowering moment of patriotic renewal.”
Brussels will struggle to inspire positive change amongst its neighbours now that it has rewarded a regime so at odds with its professed values.
A key question is whether we want their entry into Europe to be controlled by governments or by gangs of people smugglers.
Without Britain, “We would be left with Germany doing whatever they want, without control. It would be a totally German union.”
The agreement would cost British taxpayers a fortune and establish free movement of people between Calais and Turkey’s porous border with Syria.
It is a grand delusion that, right after walking out of the EU, our former partners would be bound to give us a better deal than we have now, with none of the cost.
“The Brits would be happier outside. But we don’t want them to leave.”
Whether reform can be delivered in time to convince us Brits to vote to stay in the Union remains to be seen.
The idea that Turkey is somehow backing ISIS has become a popular meme, assiduously spread online by Russian agents provocateurs, and taken up by some in Western Europe,
So much of the present crisis – and of the intervening suffering – can be traced to our failure to move decisively against Assad two years ago.
Yesterday I visited the island for the second time in four months, to offer the UK’s support.
European powers must pressure the Turkish President to end his misguided campaign against both his domestic opponents and the Kurds.
Every official we met welcomed us for showing an interest in the situation in Turkey. And they consistently called on us to do more: “this isn’t sustainable”.
This is better way of dealing with both migration and the terror threat than the patchwork measures taken so far by the EU.