Now, 608 MEPs voted for the resolution, 7 voted against and 46 abstained. Of the abstentions, 29 were MEPs from our very own Brexit Party here in the UK. The party spokesman, Gawain Towler, seen above, was quoted in The Independent:
"It would be incompatible with what we believe, to assume that the EU is the right place or the most effective tool to put pressure on the Iranian government...we could not say...the EU is the right forum for that, so we abstained".
No Brexit MEP offered any better suggestions as to what might be done to help the detainees, nor did they offer any sympathy to them and their families. Understandably, they drew angry criticism from a number of people in the UK. Shappi Khorsandi, the Anglo-Iranian comedian and writer said, again in The Independent:
"It’s a state of mind my instincts usually lead me to but it has been challenged somewhat today by the Brexit Party, who are almost admirable in their steadfast refusal to behave in any way which might display the British sense of decency and fair play we are famous for."
No surprise there for me and many others, but we'll come to that. Of dual nationality herself, she goes on to say:
"It’s chilling, frankly, to know for sure that if I went snowboarding in Iran (as many of my British friends do, there’s good snow in Iran) and was arrested and thrown into prison without committing a crime, the Brexit Party, who claim to stand for “British People” would not consider me British enough to fight for."
No surprise there, either, but others joined in the condemnation of the Brexit menagerie, saying more or less the same thing. David Lammy, MP, said:
“You (Brexit MEPs) call yourself patriots but you will not stand up for Brits imprisoned abroad. Shame on you."
I fully endorse these criticisms, but I think there is something that is being missed. In my view, the Brexit MEPs were only doing what they have done all along. They are pandering to the section of the electorate that they depend upon most heavily: racists. We like to pretend these people don't exist, but the rise in hate crime since the EU referendum proves that they certainly do. As "good" populists, the Brexit MEPs must be seen as catering for this element in the electorate, and their squalid, weaselling excuse for abstaining, while it may disgust most of us, will certainly have pleased those who think that British people should come first before immigrants who have funny names, have different coloured skins and can speak other languages.
That, actually, doesn't take much working out. Any of us who are unfortunate enough to encounter such people will know what their "views" are.
However, I think that there might be another, hidden, underlying reason for the abstention of the Brexit Little Englanders, and that is financial. The ex-prime minister, Gordon Brown, back in May of this year, raised the question of the source of funds for the Brexit Party. Quoted in the Guardian, Brown stated:
“Arron Banks, the lead funder of Leave.EU and a friend of Nigel Farage, has been under investigation. He has big contacts with Russia,” Brown said. “We don’t know where his money comes from and yet we found out last week he has given £450,000 in payments to support Nigel Farage while Nigel Farage was in a public office in the European parliament who should have been declaring the payments to avoid any conflict of interest.”
If Brown is correct, then it is fair to say that the Brexit MEPs would not want to upset their alleged Russian paymasters. It has been pointed out by a number of commentators that Russia has a keen interest in supporting Brexit. As Nick Cohen says:
"We know that Russia has interfered in elections in North America and Europe. Russia had a direct interest in promoting Brexit because it would destabilise a strategic rival. (Anyone who doubts me need only look at how Brexit has brought Whitehall close to collapse.)"
But it doesn't stop there. As we know, Russia has been very active militarily in support of the Assad regime in Syria. And who has been fighting alongside them?...Iran. Would President Putin be happy if the Brexit Party were criticising his foremost Middle Eastern ally?
Perhaps, then, we can discern another, very different reason for the Brexit Party abstention. Rather than being the British patriots they claim to be, they could well be nothing more than a shower of useful idiots for the Kremlin.
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