The jailbird vote
SIR – The prospect of allowing prisoners to vote in elections (report, Issue
1,110) raises the interesting question of where they would exercise their
franchise.
Would someone from, say, Manchester, who was serving a life sentence in
Dartmoor, cast his ballot in his home town or in Devon, where he might be
spending the next several years?
Were all the prisoners in a rural jail (such as Dartmoor) to vote, this might
even skew the result of the election.
This, in turn, would almost certainly lead to the prospect of candidates
chasing the jailbird vote.
Michael Stanford, London SE23
Comment: Prisoners will cast a postal vote in the constituency they lived in prior to imprisonment.
I don't have a problem with MPs having to knock on prisoners cell doors.
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.
"I don't have a problem with MPs having to knock on prisoners cell doors."
ReplyDeleteThat may not even be necessary John. They could be sharing the same cell.