At no point in his career, so far as anyone knows, has Cameron taken any time to study either Islamic theology or Professor Samuel Huntington's oft-misquoted thesis. Yet he talks of these, like everything else, not merely as though he is an expert, but with something rather close to ennui — as though the contrary theological positions to his own are recognised by all scholars as bunk. He speaks of those who "misinterpret" Islam as being a violent religion in the condescending manner of a scholarly Jesuit from the Pontifical Gregorian University encountering a modern convert to the Albigensian heresy.

Yet there are, pace our new PM, many good reasons to be opposed to Turkish entry. One is that Turkey is Islamising — which means it is going backwards. Many people may feel cautious about Europe being associated with that growing disaster. Other perfectly rational people might believe that Turkey, with third-world living standards across much of the country, will be a drain on the already exhausted economic resources of Europe. Others may feel they do not want up to 70 million Turkish migrants flowing freely into the rest of Europe. Or they might decide that the EU should not border Iraq, Syria or Iran. There might even be people out there who believe that Europe is recognisably a Judaeo-Christian achievement built in spite of Islam rather than because of it. And they want to keep it that way.

All of these things are possible and can be argued sanely and politely. But not for the Prime Minister. For him this is all just so much "prejudice".

Does he believe it? Probably not. Does he understand the situation? Certainly not. But he has made a calculation. For him such positions are useful to take. They will, he will think, confound those people who believe it is actually the Tories who are "prejudiced". He is using his party's erstwhile opponents' tools against them.

But this, after all, is a piddling little British electoral game. Turkey, Israel and the future of Europe and the Middle East, however, are not.