What Was Cameron Thinking?

British PM David Cameron's enthusiasm for Turkish entry into the European Union is not a serious proposal, but a cunning wrecking mechanism.

A cynical French friend suggests that I overlooked the likeliest motive for David Cameron's flattering speech in Ankara:

British enthusiasm for Turkish entry into the EU is not a serious proposal, but a cunning wrecking mechanism.

Turkey will never be admitted to the EU, for at least 3 reasons:

1) Germany will not accept being demoted to the second-biggest block of delegates in the EU Parliament;

2) France and the poorer Central European countries will not accept ultra-low-wage competition from Turkish migrant workers;

3) Security services across the continent will not accept the risk of millions of Middle Eastern travelers crossing borders into Europe visa-free.

So why advocate what's never going to happen? Because it offers a mode by which a Euroskeptic Conservative like Cameron can represent himself as ultra-pro-Europe to his LibDem coalition partners in Westminster and Britain's Europhile media.

Sir Humphrey Appleby explained it all 25 years ago.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZUOkGxGUVs