Is the Vote Leave Campaign Rhetoric Around Turkey Just a Little Bit Xenophobic?

Is the Vote Leave Campaign Rhetoric Around Turkey Just a Little Bit Xenophobic?

The Vote Leave campaign has been coming out with some absolute crackers last week.

"Turkey, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia would bring 12,726,000 guns into the single market"

Bloody hell, that's a lot of guns! The population of all the British capitals combined is 9,668,201, that's enough guns for every man, woman and child to wreak absolute havoc with the help of our Eastern European friends. They'd even be enough to dish out to everybody in Birmingham and The Black Country combined, with more to spare with what's left over.

Obviously there is a suggestion that a portion of them would make it over to the UK, but I suppose it would depend on what kind of gun. Imagine the budget airline carry on fees for a RPG? At least a polite hand gun can fit nicely into your hand luggage.

If that wasn't getting you ready to pop down Ikea and grab a bomb shelter or turning your garden into a trench.

"Murderers, terrorists and kidnappers from countries like Turkey could flock to Britain if it remains in the European Union"

Alright Tony Soprano, calm down.

Fact of the matter is, Turkey will not be joining the European Union anytime soon, it's in a incredibly poor democratic state and it needs to overturn a lot of her process if it's even going to get the sniff of full membership.

Yes, one of Turkey's caveats with the refugee crisis deal is free movement inside the EU but the UK is not part of that deal.

Let's put it this way, for Turkey to ascend to full EU membership they would have to adhere to at least 33 of 35 chapters of the EU acquis. As of 2016 they have been signed off on one, and that chapter was closed in 2006.

Even when Turkey has fully negotiated with the European Commission it will then go to the member states who have to unanimously agree on granting the country membership to the European Union.

With the rise of the far right in Europe, and countries such as Sweden, Denmark, France and Austria having parties who have a legitimate chance of getting into power by the time Turkey are even close, I wouldn't fancy their chances, would you?

This isn't a pro European Union article, I personally find it unsettling the media and politicians force their own agendas to influence decisions, including the referendum.

It also seems a bit of coincidence the populist machine was in full grind last week considering England played Turkey in Manchester, surely they wouldn't use our national sport as an opportunity to hammer home their spurious information?

I have no agenda, but I am, like most people, anti racist and encourage anti-xenophobia behaviour within society, so it is frustrating to see this kind of propaganda peddling the news lines.

Vote where your heart takes on 23rd June but do not let the powers that be treat you like an idiot.

I would like to apologise to Turkey for one thing though, Harry Kane was definitely offside.

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