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Tom Wise MEP in the European Parliament Ind - Dem Group UK Independence Party UKIP Eastern Region Region



A noisy and aggressive fracas took place outside the European Parliament today, that reminded us all of just how ugly continental politics can be. The Hammer and Sickle being openly displayed on the streets should serve as a salutary reminder to all of us that democracy and freedom should not be taken for granted, and political violence is still simmering beneath the respectable veneer of 'parliamentary democracy'.

The League of Communist Workers is calling for the release of illegal immigrants, and the closure of detention centres for asylum seekers, together with a halt on the expulsions of those whose claims are proven to be bogus.

Many of those present, however, seemed more interested in confronting police and passers-by, than in the woes of the cause célèbre of the moment.

Whilst we in Britain tend to regard Communism as a marginalised and largely irrelevant ideology nowadays, in continental politics the madness of Marx has never gone away. In the European Parliament, in fact, there is a Communist group, the GUE. This group contains such political parties as the Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, Sinn Fein, and the national communist parties of France and Portugal, as well as others of a similar ilk.

British communists have also been prominent in the European Institutions: veteran British Red, Ken Coates, was a member of the GUE, but possibly the most disturbing story of all concerns the presentation of an award by the KGB to a Labour MEP. The presentation took place in Brussels.

Oleg Gordievsky, formerly deputy head of KGB in London, writes in his memoir 'Next Stop Execution': "An agent with a long record was the veteran politician and trade unionist Bob Edwards, MP successively for Bilston and Wolverhampton.....
"Since Edwards was an enthusiastic European, a member of the European Parliament from 1977 to 1979,... they (Edwards and his KGB 'handler, Leonid Zaitzev) often met in Brussels, where Edwards had excellent contacts and access to useful military and political information. So highly did the KGB value him that he was awarded the Order of the People's Friendship, the country's third highest decoration. The medal was kept in his file at the centre, but Zaitzev once took it to Brussels, so that the recipient could at least see and touch what he had won." (1995, pp 286-7)

Political extremism is alive and well, come to Brussels and you can touch it for yourself!

Tom Wise MEP

Brussels 07 May 2008.