The current government of Britain are now preventing elected MEPS from doing their job:
UK diplomats shun BNP officials in Europe
Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons will be denied some of the access and socialising afforded to 70 other British representatives
The government is to single out Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, the British National party's two newly elected representatives in the European parliament, for special treatment, denying them some of the access and information afforded to all the other 70 UK MEPs.
Under new guidelines drafted in Whitehall and in the Foreign Office following the June elections to the European parliament, the two BNP leaders will be kept at arm's length from the kind of routine contacts and socialising that take place between British civil servants and MEPs in Brussels and Strasbourg.
When the new parliament convenes next week in Strasbourg, Glenys Kinnock, the new Europe minister, is to host a reception for all British MEPs. Only Griffin and Brons have not been invited.
"Officials will not engage in any other contact with elected representatives of any nationality who represent extremist or racist views, unless specific permission has been granted to do so on a particular occasion from the FCO permanent under-secretary and the minister for Europe," a government spokesperson said.
The official said that the BNP duo would be subject to the "same general principles governing official impartiality" and they would receive "standard written briefings as appropriate from time to time".
But British diplomats made plain that they would not be "proactive" in dealing with the BNP MEPs and that any requests for policy briefings from Griffin or Brons would be treated differently and on a discretionary basis.
A Brussels-based civil servant said it was acceptable for him to meet MEPs across the party spectrum for a drink, but that any such meetings with Griffin or Brons would be frowned upon.
The MEPs of the anti-EU UK Independence Party have been invited to next week's government reception.
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said he was satisfied that he was treated equally by the 155 diplomats and civil servants working at the British mission to the EU, known as Ukrep, in Brussels.
"During the British [EU] presidency in 2005, I remember Jack Straw telling me that we'll be treated the same as all the others," said Farage. "If we ring Ukrep, we would expect to be treated fairly by them. If we contact them, they help us even though they're almost certainly closer to the other parties. We've not found them to withhold stuff from us if we ask."
Chris Davies, the Liberal Democrat MEP, said that the BNP represented a special case and that the government was entitled to differentiate in its dealings with elected representatives.
"A line has been crossed [with the BNP]. It's a difference of degree. It's not surprising that the government has to draw up guidelines to deal with a different situation."
Following the European elections, the civil service and government officials considered a range of options for dealing with the BNP, from an inclusive non-discriminatory approach to total quarantine, effectively ostracising them. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, is said to have signed off a decision that would bar the BNP people from government and embassy events in Brussels, while providing the extremists with some policy information.
It is about time the UK had an elected P.M. instead of an unelected dictator whos party members are destroying democracey.
