i am torn over the issue of prisoner's right to vote.
a big part of me (that fluffy liberal/ socialist part) agrees that prisoners should be treated with an element of dignity and prison should all be about rehabilitation rather than retribution. an aspect of that rehabilitation is that prisoners should be allowed to engage with the outside in order to reintegrate and perhaps take onboard the accepted norms of society.
much of this feeling is based on the fact that we bang too many people up in prison in the first place and that there are better, and more suitable, punishments for a number of them.
then there is the lurking stalinist that feels his hackles rise and his ire boil (not feel physically sick like the girlyman cameron) when some prisoners get on their high horse and complain that their human rights have been infringed.
it is hard to take seriously the campaign of john hirst to get voting rights for prisoners as it is a breach of their human rights, when such a campaigner was an axe murderer - the rights of the landlady he killed are apparently not worth the paper mr. hirst used to send his complaint to the european court of human rights.
maybe sir peter bottomley has the right idea - that part of the sentancing of a prisoner is the exclusion of certain 'rights'; depending on the crime committed your 'rights' inside diminish. murder someone and you don't get to vote, don't pay a tv licence and you will be allowed to put your 'x' on a voting form.
there is another part of me that just doesn't like being told what the british governmnet can or can't do by johnny european (i am in danger of turning into clarkson/littlejohn) so i was very pleased to see parliament stick two fingers up at it all by rejecting the call to give prisoners the vote.
along with all their right to vote, maybe it is time to make sure that they have to pay their council tax as well.
a big part of me (that fluffy liberal/ socialist part) agrees that prisoners should be treated with an element of dignity and prison should all be about rehabilitation rather than retribution. an aspect of that rehabilitation is that prisoners should be allowed to engage with the outside in order to reintegrate and perhaps take onboard the accepted norms of society.
much of this feeling is based on the fact that we bang too many people up in prison in the first place and that there are better, and more suitable, punishments for a number of them.
then there is the lurking stalinist that feels his hackles rise and his ire boil (not feel physically sick like the girlyman cameron) when some prisoners get on their high horse and complain that their human rights have been infringed.
it is hard to take seriously the campaign of john hirst to get voting rights for prisoners as it is a breach of their human rights, when such a campaigner was an axe murderer - the rights of the landlady he killed are apparently not worth the paper mr. hirst used to send his complaint to the european court of human rights.
maybe sir peter bottomley has the right idea - that part of the sentancing of a prisoner is the exclusion of certain 'rights'; depending on the crime committed your 'rights' inside diminish. murder someone and you don't get to vote, don't pay a tv licence and you will be allowed to put your 'x' on a voting form.
there is another part of me that just doesn't like being told what the british governmnet can or can't do by johnny european (i am in danger of turning into clarkson/littlejohn) so i was very pleased to see parliament stick two fingers up at it all by rejecting the call to give prisoners the vote.
along with all their right to vote, maybe it is time to make sure that they have to pay their council tax as well.
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