EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS GIVES CONVICTS VOTE

 

by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 02. Nov. 2010. – 09:53:19

The European Court of Human Rights was not on my blogging agenda this morning until 8.20am when a convicted killer was interviewed on Radio 4 “Today” attempting to justify his successful campaign to achieve a vote for convicts. He even had the temerity to assert that without such a “democratic right” his former criminal associates inside the walls of Strangeways or Pentonville etc would have less reason not to riot to achieve some spurious aims. He was totally unable to comprehend that in being punished for acting outside society`s norms it was not unreasonable to preclude convicts having an influence on representation in parliament or elsewhere. 

Lord Falconer former Lord Chancellor whose opinion was also broadcast admitted that the previous government and he personally were opposed to the decision taken by the ECR for very sound reasons based essentially on the fact that prisoners` exclusion from society for disregarding its laws rendered their right to elect representatives to that society null and void. He suggested that the loose wording of the decision would in all likelihood allow the government to set a minimum period of sentence as a fault line eg only those sentenced to fewer than two years custody would be given their so called right to vote. Neither interviewee was questioned on the nuts and bolts of the practicalities of this decision. 

I am firmly with his good lordship on this. On practical terms it is a problem; on moral terms it is a disgrace; on social terms it is on a par with allowing the inmates to run the lunatic asylum and on political grounds it will further distance normal law abiding citizens of this country from any confidence that their elected government is wholly in control of this country`s destiny. And that makes for profound concern. When democratic institutions are accused of ineffectiveness or being unrepresentative of those they serve there is always a clear and present danger of the populist who claims that he can make the trains run on time.