David Cameron, Flogging His Wares

by Hugh Fitzgerald (August 2010)

“I have come to Ankara to establish a new partnership between Britain and Turkey. I think this is a vital strategic relationship for our country. As Prime Minister, I first visited our two largest European Union partners, then Afghanistan, then North America and now, I come to Turkey. People ask me, ‘Why Turkey?’ and, ‘Why so soon?’ Well, I can tell you why: because Turkey is vital for our economy, vital for our security and vital for our politics and our diplomacy.

“I ask myself this: which European country grew at 11% at the start of this year? Which European country will be the second fastest growing economy in the world by 2017? Which country in Europe has more young people than any of the 27 countries of the European Union? Which country in Europe is our number one manufacturer of televisions and second only to China in the world in construction and in contracting? Tabii ki Türkiye.

“Everyone is talking about the BRICs, the fast-growing emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Turkey is Europe’s BRIC, and yet in Britain we export more to Ireland than we export to Brazil, Russia, India, China and Turkey all combined. With no disrespect to our partners and friends in Ireland, we have to change that. That is the first reason I am here today and it is why I have chosen to come to TOBB, right in the heart of the Turkish business community.”

So that’s it: “our economy.” Great Britain, on the ropes, needs to build a “new partnership” with prosperous Turkey and its (vibrant, dynamic, world-class – chose as many of these adjectives as you feel like) economy and (dynamic, vibrant, world-class) people. Cameron came as a supplicant, full of gushing admiration for everything, from the “incredible building” in which he spoke, to the “enormous spirit of enterprise and entrepreneurialism and industry and business and trade here in Turkey” which made him convinced, even more than ever, that it was absolutely essential for “our two countries to build this incredibly strong relationship, the very one that I will be speaking about this morning.”
And he had the facts to prove just how dynamic that Turkish economy was, for he had been provided by aides with bullet-riddled sheets of Talkiing Points, just so he could remind his Turksih audience of just how splendidly Turkey was doing:

A growth rate of 11% “at the start of this year.” And the “second fastest growing economy in the world by 2017” (let’s make sure to check when 2017 rolls round, since there’s many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip). And then there are the deeply impressive demographic figures for Turkey:

“Which country in Europe has more young people than any of the 27 countries of the European Union?”

This fact appears to one that Cameron regards as admirable, as one more reason to support Turkey’s admission to the E.U., rather than as one more reason to resolutely wish to keep it out, so as to keep all of those young Turks from moving freely throughout Schengenland, settling wherever they felt like, exercising their rights as citizens of a member of the E.U.

And here’s more of this paean to the Turkish economy:

“ Which country in Europe is our number one manufacturer of televisions and second only to China in the world in construction and in contracting? Tabii ki Türkiye.”

Here’s the final paragraph on the Turkish economy.

“Everyone is talking about the BRICs, the fast-growing emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Turkey is Europe’s BRIC, and yet in Britain we export more to Ireland than we export to Brazil, Russia, India, China and Turkey all combined. With no disrespect to our partners and friends in Ireland, we have to change that. That is the first reason I am here today and it is why I have chosen to come to TOBB, right in the heart of the Turkish business community.”

There’s a telling blend here of the tone of some tittle-tattle television show – “Everyone is talking about” –about Lindsay Lohan in rehab, or about the BRICs, “the fast-growing emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, Indian and China. And since Turkey is not a constituent of the BRICs, and thus irrelevant, Cameron hastened to add that “Turkey is Europe’s BRIC.” And although British trade with Turkey is low, and “Great Britain exports more to Ireland than it does to Brazil, Russia, India, China and Turkey,” “we have to change that.” Why? Should America worry if most of its exports go to Canada, or Canada worry if most of its exports go to the United States? Perhaps ideally countries should be encouraged to trade closest to home, so that transportation costs, and the oil they use up, are minimized.

So that’s the “first reason” David Cameron was there, but it is also by far the main reason, for to David Cameron the rest hardly matters. It’s trade, it’s gold, it’s growth – these are the great themes of the thoroughly-modern politician today, the one who in brief authority is never quite a leader but is always taking – the Americans started this – a “leadership role.” He’s for all the world like some fund operator, interested in the world, but only insofar as it offers investment opportunities.

Great Britain wants economic ties, wants to make money, from the Turkish market. That’s it for David Cameron. And he comes not as the representative of a country that is equal to, much less conceivably superior to, that of the country and regime he is visiting, but as a supplicant, kowtowing rhetorically to Erdogan.

David Cameron, on the basis of some bullet-riddled Executive Summary prepared for him by some Deputy Assistant Underling For Pious Nonsense, someone seconded from the Foreign Office to the Circumlocution Office and at last, to the Office of the Prime Minister, said this in Ankara:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property — either as a child, a wife, or a concubine — must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

But, David Cameron may splutter, things are different now. Islam has changed, changed utterly. A terrible beauty is born, and so on and so bloody forth. Or he might simply ignore what Churchill had to say, or tell us “what the hell did that old fuddy-duddy know about anything? He knew nothing. He didn’t have the education I did.” True. Winston Churchill did not have the “education” that David Cameron did.

To comment on this article, please click here.

here.

If you have enjoyed this and want to read more by Hugh Fitzgerald, click here.