From time to time we must own up to our prejudices. One of mine bubbled to the surface this week when Austria threatened to derail European Union accession talks with Turkey. Since the other 24 members backed opening negotiations, the answer, it seemed to me, was pleasingly simple. Austria should be shown the exit as Brussels opened the door to Turkey.

I am told that I was not alone in pondering such a resolution as the ministerial bargaining ran late into Sunday night. If the Vienna government feared cultural contamination from Turkish entry, one senior negotiator mused, it should join Switzerland in splendid isolation on Europe’s margins.