As he sacks civil servants and locks up generals, Turkey’s embattled president has made one gesture of conciliation. During a speech to an adulatory audience inside his vast palace, Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that all criminal cases brought against people who had dared “insult” him would be dropped.

At a stroke, he lifted a threat to some 2,000 comedians, journalists, bloggers and Facebook devotees – including a former Miss Turkey – all of whom were accused of offending his dignity with unflattering remarks. In the aftermath of the failed coup on 15 July, Mr Erdogan described the abandonment of these prosecutions as a “move towards unity”