//What's the point of "turning up" in the EU "parliament" to vote?//
It's his damned job. If he does not wish to participate in the European parliament, he should either not stand for it or at the very least donate his salary (as UKIP's considerably more honourable founder wanted to do). As it stands he's quite happy to take in a pay packet for a job he doesn't do. Until very recently the only people who voted in Euro elections were people who had strong feelings about it - i.e. a small section of the electorate. Farage used that to get into office (he couldn't manage it on the 8 times he tried for our own parliament), then used his position to self-publicise for a bit and collect a fat pay check.