Is the worm turning?
Had to stop off to fill the car up this morning (GBP66 to put 50 litres in, ouch! For any North American residents reading, that's USD8.02 per gallon, in case you felt your gasoline prices were a bit high. For the old-school Brits, that's GBP9.62 per gallon. Anyway, I digress.), and I noticed a headline on one of the newspapers arrayed in the rack on the garage forecourt, which read "The day we defied Europe". Interesting, thinks I.
A quick google on those lines yielded the following article. Now, notwithstanding that the article lists the fairly poor numbers voting (256 MPs - that would about 40% of the total number of MPs folks. Just sayin'...), the motion to continue to deny prisoners the vote passed overwhelmingly. (In case anyone hasn't heard of this - the ECHR wants all member states to give the vote to some people serving jail sentences - and as everyone knows, Europe > member states.)
Don't know about anyone else, but this strikes me as the right thing to do. The ECHR argues that to do as we do breaches the human rights of the prisoners - I disagree. Without getting into an argument about the effectiveness of the UK justice system, let's work on the basis that someone in jail has been caught, tried, and proved guilty of a crime (beyond reasonable doubt). Ergo, they have acted illegally (hopefully also unlawfully - again, that's another discussion), and are being punished for that act. Why should someone who has behaved in such a manner retain their ability to have a say on the government of the country? After all, voting allows (ok, again, this is debatable) an individual to help to select the people who will represent them, those representatives will then be involved either in the drafting of new laws (likely) or the amendment/repeal (less likely IMO) of existing ones. Criminals influencing lawmaking? How is that a good idea? (I await comments pointing out the criminality/unlawfulness of most of the MPs who have formed the last two parliaments...you know the ones, Messrs Chaytor, Devine et al...)
Unfortunately, although our parliament have for now actually said "no", I don't think it'll last. Shame really.
EDIT: As pointed out by thegreatgonzo, this is coming from the ECHR, not the EU. Apparently an easy mistake to make!
A quick google on those lines yielded the following article. Now, notwithstanding that the article lists the fairly poor numbers voting (256 MPs - that would about 40% of the total number of MPs folks. Just sayin'...), the motion to continue to deny prisoners the vote passed overwhelmingly. (In case anyone hasn't heard of this - the ECHR wants all member states to give the vote to some people serving jail sentences - and as everyone knows, Europe > member states.)
Don't know about anyone else, but this strikes me as the right thing to do. The ECHR argues that to do as we do breaches the human rights of the prisoners - I disagree. Without getting into an argument about the effectiveness of the UK justice system, let's work on the basis that someone in jail has been caught, tried, and proved guilty of a crime (beyond reasonable doubt). Ergo, they have acted illegally (hopefully also unlawfully - again, that's another discussion), and are being punished for that act. Why should someone who has behaved in such a manner retain their ability to have a say on the government of the country? After all, voting allows (ok, again, this is debatable) an individual to help to select the people who will represent them, those representatives will then be involved either in the drafting of new laws (likely) or the amendment/repeal (less likely IMO) of existing ones. Criminals influencing lawmaking? How is that a good idea? (I await comments pointing out the criminality/unlawfulness of most of the MPs who have formed the last two parliaments...you know the ones, Messrs Chaytor, Devine et al...)
Unfortunately, although our parliament have for now actually said "no", I don't think it'll last. Shame really.
EDIT: As pointed out by thegreatgonzo, this is coming from the ECHR, not the EU. Apparently an easy mistake to make!