Suella Braverman's geography lesson

Some spectacular breaking geography news on LBC this morning with former home secretary Suella Braverman sitting in for token lefty presenter James O’Brien.

Italy, she told the nation’s cabbies, had “reinforced their borders. They built a wall – I went to see that wall. They built a wall on the land border between Italy and Turkey.

“They’ve got drones. They’ve got armoured vehicles. They’ve got soldiers. The numbers crossing that border have plummeted.”

Suella Braverman tells LBC that Italy have "built a wall" on the "land border between Italy and Turkey" and insists that "I've been to see it"

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— Adam Bienkov (@adambienkov.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 12:19 PM

Such a sight would indeed be spectacular – given that, er, Italy doesn’t have a land border with Turkey. Or indeed any border at all. And any wall between the two countries would have to cut through much of Albania as well as the Adriatic Sea. Italy borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. All are open due to either the EU’s Schengen agreement or its 1999 Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons with the Swiss.

More generous respondents on social media speculated Braverman could have meant Greece’s 40km fence and surveillance system on its border with Turkey, completed in 2021, and the Conservative MP was mixing up her ancient civilisations. Braverman did visit the Evros border region in 2023.

With such a detailed grasp of geopolitics, it’s little wonder, then, that many fully expect Braverman to follow this year her husband and defect to Reform!