Strasbourg geese
From Mr Colin Bullen Sir: Nigel Farage's strictures on Conservative MEPs (`The wimps of Strasbourg', 21 April) would carry considerably more conviction had his party remained true to the principle upon which it was founded: 'that it would not accept seats won in the European Parliament, as doing so would thereby recognise the legitimacy of that body's claim to interfere in British affairs.' This principle was supported by Enoch Powell as the only intellectually consistent position to take in relation to the European elections, and it is surely rank hypocrisy for a leading member of UKIP to complain of the mote in another's eye while ignoring the plank in his own. Either one supports the principle that the European Parliament has no more right to decide on British affairs than does the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party, or one accepts that the powers they claim are legitimate, and takes part in the farce of Strasbourg.
The presence of anti-EU MEPs at Strasbourg will have no effect on UK membership of the EU, as only the Westminster Parliament has the power to abrogate the treaties signed, but it will have the unfortunate effect of allowing the federalists to claim that the European Parliament is a genuinely democratic body, containing within it an identifiable opposition, comparable to Westminster. A parliament whose MEPs have vast, unwieldy constituencies, whose speeches are limited to 90 seconds, and who only have the right to consider proposals put forward by their own bureaucrats, is merely a fig-leaf intended to conceal the total lack of democracy at the heart of the EU. UKIP MEPs are being drawn into the system, as evidenced by the first of their maiden speeches; UKIP is actually supplied, by the EU, with offices in Queen Anne's Gate, and it seems that there are within the party a number of paid posts dependent on EU funds, thus creating a vested interest in the UK remaining within the EU.
If Mr Farage truly wishes to reclaim the democratic rights of the British people, he and his colleagues could begin by spurning Strasbourg and making clear that they only accept the legitimacy of our elected Parliament at Westminster. The temptation, as Mr Farage describes it, to `go native' can best be avoided by treating the European Parliament with the contempt it deserves. Colin Millen
Tonbridge, Kent
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