Hypocrisy, another in a continuing series

We all know the public routine offered up by our betters when it comes to what kind of people are needed to help run those pure and lovely governmental institutions. It is always some variant of: seeking qualified individuals who bring their life experiences to inform debate on the great issues of the day in a vibrant setting of tolerant, yet vigorous, open-minded debate.

Well, there are limits of course:

Mrs Andreasen was blocked by Christian Democrat and Socialist MEPs from becoming vice-chairman of the European Parliament's budgetary committee on Monday.

The centre-Right European People's Party and the Socialists broke parliamentary convention on the allocation of committee posts by demanding a vote by secret ballot to block Mrs Andreasen, who was elected as a Ukip MEP for South East England last month.

"They know that I know too much. I know where the bodies are buried and that's why they don't want me," said Mrs Andreasen.

Chris Davies, a Liberal Democrat, attacked the "shameful decision" to hold a secret ballot so the MEPs could not be "held accountable for their actions".

"The message it sends to the public is that anyone who speaks out against malpractice in Europe risks being excluded from office," he said.

Mrs Andreasen, the European Commission's former chief accountant, was fired in 2004 after she publicly claimed there was a £172 million discrepancy between two sets of Brussels accounts.

Open/informed debate and leadership is a good thing, just not that open and informed you see......