Why we should delay opening accession negotiations with Turkey

The British Presidency, we are told, has been working very hard to ensure that the negotiations to allow Turkey to accede to the European Union will begin, as scheduled, on 3rd October - that is next week. They may indeed begin. Or on the other hand they may not.

If they begin they may be broken off, perhaps indefinitely. If they are postponed now they may never start. The situation is not a happy state of affairs for anybody. This may be the 21st century but diplomacy remains an art...