Straw: Prisoners won't be able to vote until after general election
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor
08.10.09
Jack Straw is to delay legal changes that will allow prisoners to vote until after the general election.
"The Ministry of Justice is expected to announce its final plans over the coming months for giving the vote to inmates, after a public consultation.
The move follows a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights that Britain's ban is an unlawful breach of the right to take part in free elections.
The Justice Secretary, who is opposed to changing the law, is understood to believe there is no urgency to comply with the ruling issued five years ago. He plans to ensure there is no change ahead of polling day, expected next May.
"Complying with European rulings that effectively grant extra rights is not as important as responding in other cases," said a source close to Mr Straw. "We are consulting on this, but will not be rushing to make any decisions."
This will also avoid potentially unpopular and politically damaging reform in the run-up to the election. But it will infuriate penal reform campaigners as well as the Liberal Democrats, who support a change in the law.
Andrew Neilson, assistant director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, criticised any delay. "This is too vital an issue to further prevaricate in the hope it is somebody else's problem after the election," he said. "If we want prisoners to become responsible citizens on release, we must treat them as such."
The Government's slow implementation of the ruling was criticised in June by the Council of Europe's committee of ministers and was rebuked last year by the UN human rights committee.
The ministry's consultation on giving prisoners the vote, its second on the issue, ends next week. It outlines options for how many of Britain's 84,000 inmates will gain the right to vote. These include giving it to all prisoners sentenced to fewer than four years or restricting the entitlement to those jailed for a year or less.
It also discusses where prisoners would be registered, how they would cast their ballot, and how their details might appear on the electoral roll. The ban on prisoners voting has stood for nearly 140 years, but was declared unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights in 2004. Mr Straw's decision to delay any action, and a possible new government, means reform could be postponed until 2011".
Comment: Have I got news for Jack Straw. Don't push me. Don't abuse prisoners human rights any longer. Between the EU and myself and the Association of Prisoners the position is not comfortable for the MoJ. The best thing Jack Straw can do now is resign.
Friday UPDATE: Doing a Radio Humberside interview with Peter Levy at 12.45pm.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
5 comments:
"Straw: Prisoners won't be able to vote until after general election"
Why do politicians do this?
I am sure that most of your readers if they knew me would consider me a very 'hard liner' yet even I can not see the sense in denying a prisoner a vote.
What is their point?
Because they are stupid and frightened. The public have the choice. Either law and order or anarchy. The law has made its position very clear. The EU has made its position clear.
If Jack Straw thinks the public are going to support a war criminal who abuses citizens human rights he has another think coming.
He has a duty to ensure that citizens have their human rights protected.
Jack Straw is equal to Hitler.
No Jack Straw is the Henrich Himmler of the NuLabor Party, a school yard bully of a politician who thinks he is a law unto himself.
The most honourable thing he could do is take himself off to Afghanistan clearing mine fields with a pick axe!
I sincerely hope you find a way of making him accountable and preferably before the General Election.
BB: I have been in shock since I read the news. It is quite frightening when somebody claims to be above the law like Jack Straw. It is as if he is saying "The King can do no wrong". Charles the first made that mistake and lost his head. I am pulling out all stops to try and get him into court. If the High Court had done its job in the first place, this would have been sorted 2 elections ago. He does not send out a good example for prisoners to follow. Look at me I am being irresponsible and getting away with it.
Not much use for them.
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