In a gesture as eloquent as it was symbolic (or as empty as it was crass), Ukip's 24 MEPs turned their backs on the EU's flag and unofficial anthem during the opening session of the European parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. As a chamber orchestra played Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Britain's largest single contingent of Euro-parliamentarians stood solemnly facing the other way, looking defiant and ever so slightly silly. The pre-planned volte face concluded what the party boldly called a "March for Freedom" on the parliament building, supposedly signifying Ukip's "work for the freedom of people from EU legislation and waste". Paul Nuttall, the party's deputy leader, said its MEPs had decided to show that they neither "recognise or respect the EU flag or anthem", both of which, he argued, were "symbols of our servitude inside a political union which the British people reject".