Turkey: Our Mad Woman in the Attic.

The result of the referendum in Turkey came as no surprise, at least not to me it didn't. People like Erdogan never lose whether they win or not.

And so Turkey begins the slide back into the Middle Ages, when the rule of law mostly came down to the will of a single tyrant. I have to admit here that I don’t know Erdogan personally, of course, but his recent childish and hypocritical tirade against the Netherlands must surely give the measure of the man.

But just think what this means for the rest of us in Europe. We now have our very own North Korea in our very own south east corner to wrinkle our brow at. I mean, the Americas have one or two, Africa has its fair share, and now us. All it needs is for Trump to plant the Stars and Stripes on Antarctica and the set will be complete.

But I doubt that Turkey will stay in Europe very much longer, especially if Mr E gets his way and re-imposes the death penalty. (Poor old Turks. Imagine living in a country under the yoke of a man like Erdogan, with the ogre of capital punishment just waiting for the odd kangaroo court to feed it. Frightening, isn’t it?) And most of Turkey isn’t geographically in Europe anyway, but you might allow those of us who are to feel a sense of belonging to the world community as long as we have even the ghost of an excuse.