Dear David Miliband,
I wasn’t exactly surprised by your appointment to the Cabinet under a Brown leadership, after your late decision not to challenge him in the leadership election. What did surprise me was that you were given such a senior position, despite your lack of political experience and complete anonymity as far as international relations goes. Your article in the Telegraph this morning trying to convince us that Turkey is crucial to the EU does nothing but expose your ignorance in terms of international politics.
Let me remind you of a few things about Turkey. Firstly, it’s not in Europe. Perhaps you weren’t paying attention in your Geography lessons at school, but on consulting my atlas I am convinced that there is no justification for including Turkey on geographical grounds because IT IS NOT IN EUROPE. Secondly, for all your talk about the wonderful democracy in Turkey (don’t ask me where you got that idea from) you declined to mention their disgraceful human rights record, including the frequent use of torture by the authorities, and the complete absence of freedom of speech and freedom of expression - both of which are fundamental values in European countries. Why the hell would we want that type of government to be part of Europe?
Your arguments promoting Turkey joining the EU are baseless and somehow seem to focus around Al-Qaeda and Islam, which didn’t make any sense. Let’s talk human rights and freedom of speech instead.
I await your response to those issues.
A.Tory
4 responses so far ↓
tomas kust // September 9, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Dear Letters,
please allow me spell it out for you - if you can succeed in drawing a line on a map to permanently define an outline, you are a far better man than hundreds of generations of cartographers and despots: perhaps instead you might like to ‘think’ a bit deeper about what ‘Europe’ is and why you hold your opinions.
Should you be unable to unravel the origins of such recieved conclusions, which, of course, you are more than welcome to agree or disagree with, then perhaps you may learn to understand the irony of continuing to maintain your strapline.
While I’m pleased that you to take the time to correspond, I would be more enthused were you to exercise slightly more oversight when you wish to assert your opinions, and although I’d prefer some argument by which a logical progression of ideas could be assertained, I would nevertheless wish you further encouragement in the development of your techniques for political investigation, on the proviso that some development is eventually forthcoming.
Yours sincerely.
Letters From A Tory // September 10, 2007 at 7:24 am
I don’t need a logical progression to reach ‘Turkey commits horrific human rights violations and should therefore not be allowed to enter the European Union until such practices are brought to a stop’. That is clearly a salient argument in itself and saying that I should develop my techniques for political investigation cleverly sidesteps your inability to respond to my point.
And I know what Europe is, thanks. It’s very clearly defined on the map.
tomas kust // September 11, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Dear Letters,
You state clearly “I know what Europe is, thanks. It’s very clearly defined on the map,” yet you fail to recognise the inherent contradiction in what you say.
Maps show places, so they might show you where something is, but not what it is. However, definitions are always determined by politics which are the result of history, so one might bother to remember that boundaries have shifted as those definitions you hold dear have changed. Anyway, even a cursory glance at an atlas will show you that the part of Turkey called Eastern Thrace is within the landmass which you affirm as ‘Europe’. For arguments’ sake and to aid your information, I personally favour the Taurus mountain range as the border of ‘Europe’ (ie Kurdistan is not european), but that raises the discomfort of creating problems about the definitiveness of those strict definitions, which you sidestep without confronting them.
According to your critique over human rights you are clearly arguing that ‘Europe’ is a political construct, so, in future I hope you will be more aware of the potential for irrational disingenuity, conscious or otherwise.
Thanks.
Somebody please buy Miliband a map « LETTERS FROM A TORY // November 16, 2007 at 9:03 am
[...] seem to remember writing you a letter not so long ago about the fact that Turkey is not in Europe and has little in common with European values, history and attitudes. Obviously you haven’t checked a map since then, because the very notion that Africa and [...]
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