Make the law and stick to it
By Sam Leith, London Evening Standard, 21 Feb 2011
I'm all in favour of giving prisoners the right to vote. It's not as if enfranchising convicts will result in a landslide election victory for the Give All Prisoners Nice Currant Buns Party, is it? But whatever your view on the matter, it's just dumb to applaud defiance of European law as "a rare victory for common sense".
You either sign up to a treaty or you don't. We signed up to this one: and if we want to withdraw from it that case needs to be made in toto. Regarding a body of law as a tapas menu where you pick and choose what suits you sets a precedent that's the opposite of common sense. It's exactly that way of thinking, in fact, that put all those prisoners in jail in the first place.
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.
Well said Sam, your comments are like a "rare post of victory for common sense" than anything the Govt has had to say all along.
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