Today the European Parliament ratified the Lisbon Treaty. It did so by a large majority of its 785 members but 115 voted against and 160 failed to register a vote at all.

As a demonstration against the Treaty some of the UKIP staff were dressed as chickens to point out the cowardice of the European Elite. They want to foist the Constitution upon the people, but they do not dare to ask the people whether they want it.

The Head of Security and a pack of security guards chased us around the building until there was a stalemate. He informed me that "costumes are against the rules of the Parliament". I demanded to see the rule where this was stated. He could not provide any proof of his claims.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage appeared and was interviewed by a freelance journalist. As that interview finished a woman appeared called Anne-Margrete Wachtmeister. She is the Head of the Audio Visual Unit in the Parliament which describes itself thus,

Audiovisual Unit, which provides services and products to the audiovisual media in order to facilitate its coverage of the EP

Wachtmeister to the journalist,

"You should not broadcast that interview".
"Why?" said the shocked hack.
"Because the film crew are employees of the Parliament and they should not be used to film dissent".

This exchange was overheard by Shirin Wheeler, the presenter of the BBC World "Record" program that covers the Parliament. She threatened to block all further BBC coverage of the Parliament in Brussels and Strasburg if this attitude was not corrected.

The Parliament backed down.

But the thought that the Parliament even considered this is scary. Remember that the European Commission are planning to vet journalists. The European Parliament is building a TV station over which they have editorial control.

Recently in the chamber Danny Cohn-Bendit (President of the Greens) has described Eurosceptics as "mentally ill", the leader of the Socialist Group Martin Schulz described Eurosceptics as followers of Adolf Hitler. Graham Watson described Eurosceptics as both Communist and National Socialist in the same sentence.
The President of Parliament has gifted himself arbritary powers over the rules of procedure.

Does all this remind anybody of anything?

(The picture shows your correspondent relaxing before the confrontation)