Report to the People
29th January 2007
Veto
the Villains’ Vote
Because they i) don’t have
much else to do and ii) often qualify for legal aid and so can make lawyers a
tidy sum, prisoners who once sewed mailbags now while away the years suing the
government.
According to the latest
ludicrous case, not letting drug dealers and paedophiles elect those who pass
the laws they break is apparently a breach of their human rights.
My heart bleeds.
I might be wrong, but isn’t
the whole point of prison that, as a punishment for breaking the rules of
society, you’re stripped of some of its privileges, such as voting?
What’s next, I wonder. Prisoners
suing because the perimeter wall violates their right to freedom of movement?
As our MP, David Cairns, said
last Thursday, the government at Westminster is looking at how to change the law
so the European Convention on Human Rights doesn’t catch it out on a
technicality. But I can tell you
now that this case won’t deny you your right to vote in May’s elections.
In the meantime, if prisoners
want the same rights as the rest of us, they can have the same responsibilities
too. They can vote as soon as they
start paying Council Tax and, indeed, making some contribution towards their
board and lodgings while they’re locked up at our expense.
As Oscar Wilde put it, there
are two tragedies in life. “One
is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
The latter, he warned, is much the worst.
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