There’s a principled way to protest – and then there’s the Brexit Party candidates in Strasbourg

Twenty-nine absurd men and women seeking to confer some kind of statesmanlike greatness upon themselves by taking some brave stand against a Beethoven saxophone solo is so tragically pitiful it can embarrass no one but those involved in it

Members of the Brexit Party turn their back to the assembly as the European anthem is played (Reuters)

It’s an old French word, parliament, from parler, to speak. So there’s no disrespect at all, but considerable efficiency in fact, in Nigel Farage turning to face the European parliament with the orifice from which he prefers to talk.

It was the first session of the new European parliament on Tuesday morning, following elections at the end of May, and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party wasted no time at all in letting their colleagues know what they were dealing with. A small jazz quartet of what looked to be teenagers played a version of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – the European Union’s anthem – for solo saxophone. And at their big moment, 29 grown men and women stood up and turned their backs to them.

Their little protest went viral. Other members of the European parliament briefly turned around to take pictures of the backs of their new colleagues on their iPads. Nigel Farage was thrilled. But it was exactly that, a little protest. Little people, little minds, standing in little rows, their backsides all barely inches from the little Union Jacks that they had all already put out on their desks.