Lib Dems must dare to be different over prisoners' voting rights

Lib Dems must dare to be different over prisoners' voting rights

The Council of Europe ruling against the UK ban on prisoners voting offers the Lib Dems a chance to seize the initiative

Richard Grayson
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 June 2010 11.00 BST

The Liberal Democrats have the chance to seize the initiative on the issue of voting rights for the UK's prisoners. Photograph: Sean Smith

The Council of Europe's committee of ministers has posed a major challenge for the coalition government. In ruling that the UK has three months to overturn the blanket ban on prisoners voting it has exposed a stark divide between the coalition partners. Despite the short-term fixes in the coalition agreement, most activists in the two parties hold very different sentiments on matters such as prisons.

Fundamental to the Conservative approach is the view that prison should be primarily about punishment. For Liberal Democrats, prison is primarily about preventing re-offending. It is into this inflammable mixture that the committee of ministers have thrown a grenade. The parties can only respond with reference to deeply held principles, not only on prisons, but also on Europe and human rights.

From a typical Conservative perspective, giving prisoners the vote will further weaken a regime that they already see as soft. They consistently took that position when the issue arose in the last parliament and criticised Europe being involved. Lord Tebbit talked about "judicial imperialism". Such arguments may well lead to the Conservatives resurrecting another bogeyman to add to holiday camp prisons and interfering European bureaucrats: the politically correct Human Rights Act. The coalition has so far skirted around the issue, but David Cameron may not be able to hold his backbenches in check on the Human Rights Act if prisoner voting is waved in the faces of Conservative members.

While Liberal Democrats have consistently made it clear that they understand the need to punish crimes (despite the way the party has been characterised as "soft on crime" by both Labour and the Conservatives), the party is generally most interested in stopping crime in the first place. One way to do that is to transform prisons from being colleges of crime, to places that turn out people who can take up an honest place in society.

Anybody who believes that removing the vote is any real punishment is surely underestimating the grim reality of life in prison. Is there any prisoner who feels that the worst part of incarceration is that they cannot vote? But allowing prisoners to vote could be used in a constructive way.

Many prisoners feel they have had a difficult life and would like society to be different. Imagine if some time in prison could be used to educate prisoners in how society can be better, and how they can play a part in it. That can partly be achieved by educating them in the political process and encouraging them to take part in it, even if only by voting. Giving prisoners the vote would be a small gesture. But little harm can come of it, while a powerful signal would be sent that society really does mean to bring prisoners back into a full and useful life after prison.

Neither Labour nor the Conservatives will take up this case. So it falls to the Liberal Democrats to be different, in line with their principles. If being in government is to mean anything, and if the Liberal Democrats really do mean today's politics to be "new", then they have to behave in a new way when confronted by the scaremongering of some tabloids. They must also be prepared to confront the Conservatives when necessary. Continuing to take potentially unpopular but right and practical positions on crime will be one measure of how far they have been successful.

• The subheading for this article was amended at 17:00 on 9 June. It originally referred to the "EU" ruling against the ban. The Council of Europe is not an EU body. The mistake, which was not the author's, has now been corrected