MOVING ON ?
It`s funny how things get overtaken by other things. Some months ago there was quite a fuss about the prospects of convicted felons being given the right to vote whilst detained at Her Majesty`s pleasure. I guess like many others, my immediate reaction was to object, principally on the grounds that if you are a convicted murderer, rapist, fraudster or any of the other menu of crimes for which you may have been incarcerated, then you really should lose not only your freedom but also most if not all of the rights enjoyed by honest citizens.
But yesterday`s `judgement ` by the unelected jurists who make up the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has meant that the issue about old lags having the vote has been overtaken by the much bigger question as to whether sovereign countries should have their laws and the wishes of the majority of their citizens being overridden by this remote and unaccountable outfit.
I hope that our own Parliament will show the backbone needed not only to defy the EU but also refuse to pay the £150million fine if it does not adopt the Court`s ruling within six months. If not, it will bring into serious doubt the value of voting at all for a `sovereign parliament` whose powers are being diminished with alarming regularity.
On the now narrowing issue of votes for prisoners, I suspect too that it has been overtaken by the precedent set by John (Captain, Leader, Legend) Terry who, by appearing in his Chelsea kit and collecting the Champions League Cup despite being banned from the game, cocked yet another snoot at the football authorities and brought the game into yet more disrepute. But what`s good enough for Terry must surely be good enough for our prison population.
But yesterday`s `judgement ` by the unelected jurists who make up the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has meant that the issue about old lags having the vote has been overtaken by the much bigger question as to whether sovereign countries should have their laws and the wishes of the majority of their citizens being overridden by this remote and unaccountable outfit.
I hope that our own Parliament will show the backbone needed not only to defy the EU but also refuse to pay the £150million fine if it does not adopt the Court`s ruling within six months. If not, it will bring into serious doubt the value of voting at all for a `sovereign parliament` whose powers are being diminished with alarming regularity.
On the now narrowing issue of votes for prisoners, I suspect too that it has been overtaken by the precedent set by John (Captain, Leader, Legend) Terry who, by appearing in his Chelsea kit and collecting the Champions League Cup despite being banned from the game, cocked yet another snoot at the football authorities and brought the game into yet more disrepute. But what`s good enough for Terry must surely be good enough for our prison population.
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